8 years later, Sudbury couple still haunted by moose crash

Wildlife crashes in northern Ontario are so common that almost everyone seems to have had a brush with an animal on the highway. But those crashes can be very serious — or even fatal.

On September 8, 2010, ten days before her daughter's wedding, Colombe Cayen clipped a moose with her Kia Spectra while driving through Hagar, Ont..

"I was finished work at 7:30 and heading back home to Verner," Cayen told CBC's Morning North, adding that she didn't recall the actual collision.

"All I remember is waking up in a helicopter, and they told me that I had hit a moose in in an accident."

Police notified her husband, Denis, who was waiting at home.

"My daughters were calling, wondering where their mom was," Denis said. "I said don't worry, she's probably shopping."

"After I hung up, the dog went absolutely crazy. Absolutely nuts, hair standing on the back of his neck. I figured maybe there was a bear in the yard."

Denis said the dog was responding to the presence of a police officer who had walked into the yard to deliver the news.

"I called my daughters, and told them to meet mom at the hospital," Denis said. "[The police officer] said 'we've opened a lane to get you there fast."

On the way to the hospital, Denis said he passed through the accident scene.

"At the crash site, they were putting the car on the flatbed. The roof was literally sheared off."

At the hospital, police told Denis the moose was walking in the same direction as traffic, and Cayen clipped its hind legs, sending the 1000-lbs. animal over the roof of the car.

The impact of hitting the moose tore the roof of the car off, leaving it 100 feet down the highway.

Colombe said she does not remember the impact, only waking up in the hospital with injuries, including a long gash across her forehead from the moose's hoof striking her.

She also said that nurses had to pick off clumps of moose hair and shards of glass from her.

Colombe said she now keeps a moose whistle affixed to her car to ward off animals as she's driving. As for Denis, who's a long-haul truck driver, he said he's mentally preparing for the next incident.

"Yes, you do think about [collisions,] if you don't think, you might as well give your head a shake," he said. "It's not a matter of if something will happen, it's a matter of when."