A young moose only just managed to avoid what could have been a tragic collision with a motorcycle and then a car on Route 17 in northern New Brunswick on Tuesday morning.
Roxanne Cormier-Haché got the incident on video, taken outside her home in Menneval, between Kedgwick and Campbellton.
“I was sitting quietly in my living room when I heard a noise. I thought it was someone gathering wood, but I turned and noticed two young moose in my yard,” she told Radio-Canada, in French.
When Cormier-Haché grabbed her phone to take a video of the animals, she did not know she would end up recording a very close call between the moose and passing vehicles on the nearby Route 17.
One crossed the road just as a motorcycle passed. It braced its long legs and skidded to a stop, just missing the motorcycle. Then, almost immediately, a car passed by in the other direction, also barely missing the moose.
“I thought for sure the motorcycle hit it,” she said. “I got in my vehicle to go see whether the motorcycle had fallen on the road, but I didn’t see anything.
“I was happy the motorcyclist didn’t hit the animal.”
According to Cormier-Haché, the second moose was spooked by the near miss, opted not to cross the road and ran into the woods behind her house.
She said she has not seen either moose since, though she saw another one on the side of Route 17 when returning home from Campbellton on Wednesday night.
Common sight
Cormier-Haché said moose can be seen on Route 17 at any hour of the day, but it’s more common at night.
The area has been heavily logged, she said, and the animals don’t have a lot of places to go.
“It’s dangerous on that road. You need to pay attention even if the speed limit is 90-kilometres per hour,” she said.
“I imagine hitting a moose hurts. I wouldn’t try it, anyway.”