Moose Collision

Moose!

On July 27, 2003, while returning from an Opera North board dinner for the cast and crew and Young Artists, we hit a moose at 80 mph on I-89 near mile marker 16, about 13 miles from home. The following newspaper accounts tell the story. Here is a photo of Saab's moose test (60 mph into a 900 lb moose dummy), as they are the only car makers to design for and test for moose collisions. Moose range up to 1,700 lbs, and ours was large, maybe in the 1,200 lb range. That is the weight of a VW Beetle hitting you in the windshield. Here is a photo of our car after the collision (thats moose blood & guts, not ours), and here is a photo of us (photo Copyright 2003, Robert Eddy), 16 hours after the collision. Saab engineering worked, as we had only minor cuts (one bandage between us). In any other car we would have died. This was my sixth Saab (I now have my seventh, of course).

Here is the article (click for another) from the Valley News (Lebanon, NH):

Valley News, Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Couple Survive Crash

Car Hit Moose, Went Over Bank

by Bob Hookway
Valley News Staff Writer

ROYALTON - A Randolph Center flight instructor says the safety features in his Saab enabled his wife and him to walk away from a collision with a moose Sunday night on Interstate 89.
Carl S. Brandon, 59, and his wife, Ann, 45, survived the life-threatening encounter with the moose in Royalton and a plunge down an embankment.
Carl Brandon said last night he was glad that he did some research before he bought his car, a 2000 Saab.
" I'm alive because I was driving a Saab," said Brandon. The car's roof support posts are stronger than those in most other vehicles, so the top did not cave in as readily under impact, he said.
Moose collisions are common in Sweden, where Saabs are manufactured, and the automaker tests its vehicles in collisions with heavy dummies shaped like moose, according to the company's Web site.
Although the couple escaped with cuts and scrapes from the accident, which took place just before 9:30 p.m., it was still a harrowing experi- ence, he said. Brandon said he recalled his three rules as a pilot and flight instructor as he struggled to maintain control of the vehicle after the moose crashed through the windshield, blocking his visibility.
"Rule one: fly the plane. Rule two:
fly the plane. Rule three: fly the plane," he said.
"The big thing is, it's as if a moose suddenly appears in front of you. You have no chance. We went across the median, then just missed the guardrail on the other side. We went off the road about 100 linear feet at a 20 degree angle. When we stopped, my wife asked me, 'Are you alive?' I said yes,"he said.
Brandon, a zoologist, said he did not take the time to examine the moose for its weight or sex, but said it was a very large animal
Brandon said he also needed additional medical attention to have a piece of plant material that was in the moose's stomach removed from his, eye.
Several other motorists traveling through the Upper Valley last week had bad encounters with a moose as well. After one unknown driver struck a moose shortly after 9 p.m. Friday on Interstate 91.. in Newbury, Vt., four other drivers - from Rum- ford, R.I., Beaconsfield, Quebec, Greenwich, Conn., and New Boston, NH - ran over the same moose.
Three of the vehicles had to be towed because of undercarriage damage Vermont State Police said in a news
release.
A 24-year-old Massachusetts schoolteacher died last week in that state’s first recorded vehicle-moose fatality.

and The Herald (Randolph Vermont) article:

Randolph Couple Survives I-89 Crash with Moose

By Sandy Cooch

Carl and Ann Brandon of Randolph Center credit their 2000 Saab and its moose-proof construction with saving their lives.
A Sunday night collision with a moose on I-89 in Royalton sent the Saab on a brief but harrowing high-speed trip: Carl steering blind across all four lanes of the interstate with his broken windshield covered with moose parts.
In the end, the Saab was totaled, but the Brandons climbed out of it with only a few scrapes and cuts.
Car-moose collisions are often fatal for both the animal and humans, as moose, much taller than deer, will fall onto the windshield and roof, splintering glass and crushing in the metal. There was a fatal crash on the Interstate several years ago, not far from where the Brandons encountered their moose this week.
Saabs, according to Brandon, "are the only car in the world actually tested for moose impact."
Manufactured in Sweden where there are plenty of moose, Saabs feature heavy-gauge corner posts "designed so the moose will go over, rather than flatten, the car," Carl explained.
Moose, darker than deer and with little "eye shine" to alert drivers that an animal is in the road, are also notoriously hard to spot.
Driving North
That was the case for the Brandons, who were heading north in I-89 in Royalton at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday night, when a large moose suddenly appeared before them. At the time, the Brandons were at mile marker 16, at the base of the long hill leading up to the "Royalton curves."
" There was not half a second to react," Ann recalled this week.
The collision, according to state police, sent the car careening across the northbound lanes, the median and southbound lanes, and then down an embankment on the far side. The Saab traveled about 100 feet or so off the pavement before coming to a rest.
During the whole, strange trip, Carl Brandon kept steering, working to keep the car on a straight path so it wouldn’t roll. He only learned later that he narrowly missed a southbound, flatbed truck. He couldn’t see a thing.
The impact eviscerated the animal, leaving most of the carcass on the road but the windshield obscured, according to Game Warden Keith Gallant.
" We had moose stomach all over us," Ann said this week.
Brandon calculates that he and Ann traveled about 500 feet in maybe 8-10 seconds after hitting the moose.
The driver of the truck stopped, called 911, and set up flashers. State police and Royalton Rescue responded; Vermont Fish & Game assisted at the scene.
The Brandons were taken to Gifford Medical Center and later released. Everyone, Carl noted, was amazed at their lack of major injuries.
Game Warden Gallant agreed this week that it was remarkable that the couple escaped serious injury or death.
Moose are more commonly found on the roads in the spring or in the fall, he noted, but there have been some recent moose collisions.
The huge animals tend to mosey slowly across pavement, partly because their hooves have no traction on the pavement, and partly because they don’t perceive traffic as a threat.
Moose eyes actually do reflect some light, Gallant remarked, but, generally, the big animals don’t even bother to look at oncoming traffic.
Life-threatening events are known for sparking a soul-searching review of one’s life.
The Brandons, Carl said this week, have done some of that and decided that "we really didn’t have anything we wanted to change."
That might include, one assumes, the kind of car they drive.