A young elk barely managed to avoid a tragic collision with a motorcycle and then a car on Route 17 in northern New Brunswick on Tuesday morning.
Roxanne Cormier-Haché was videotaped the incident 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 around and saw two young moose in my yard,” she told Radio-Canada in French .
When Cormier-Haché grabbed her phone to videotape the animals, little did she know she’d be capturing a very close conversation between the moose and passing vehicles on nearby Route 17.
One crossed the road just as a motorcycle passed. Bracing his long legs, he skidded to a stop, but missed the motorcycle. Then, almost immediately, a car passed in the other direction, also narrowly missing the moose.
“I thought for sure the bike had hit him,” she said. “I got into my vehicle to see if the bike had fallen on the road, but I didn’t see anything.
“I was glad the motorcyclist hadn’t hit the animal.”
According to Cormier-Haché, the second moose was startled by the near miss, chose not to cross the road and ran into the woods behind her home.
She said she hasn’t seen a moose since, though she saw one more on the side of Route 17 on Wednesday night when she returned home from Campbellton.
General view
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 many places to go.
“It’s dangerous on that road. You have to pay attention, even though the speed limit is 90 kilometers per hour,” she said.
“I can imagine it hurts to hit a moose. In any case, I wouldn’t try.’
