‘All of a sudden, a friggin’ moose comes out of nowhere and lands on the front of the truck’
KELOWNA – Doug Adams remembers the moose slamming into the hood, then sliding up the windshield, six inches from his face. The impact brought the one-ton diesel truck to an instant standstill.
Adams, 56, of Vernon, was the passenger in a truck that collided with an estimated 800 pound moose last Friday, May 1, in downtown Kelowna. It was about 4 a.m. and Adams was on his way to Chilliwack with a friend.
They were travelling about 50 kilometres per hour on Harvey Avenue (Highway 97) near Burtch Road when they started seeing brake lights up ahead. They slowed down to about 30 km/h but it was too late.
“All of a sudden, a friggin’ moose comes out of nowhere and lands on the front of the truck,” Adams says. “It stopped us dead…. If we’d been in a car it would have been fatal, or we’d have been badly injured.”
The front end of the truck was crushed, and parts of the vehicle were scattered across the road.
“It was just really weird. You don’t expect something like that in the middle of the city,” Adams says.
The moose lay motionless for about five minutes before it tried to stand, Adams says.
“When he came to, he tried to get up but his back end wouldn’t move,” Adams says.
RCMP and B.C. Ambulance were quick to the scene, and while Adams was getting checked out by medical personnel, he heard gun fire. He estimates by that time, about half an hour had passed since the accident.
“I heard bang, bang bang, and I figured they killed it. Then another five minutes later, I heard another bang. It took about 15 shots before they got it down. It sounded like firecrackers,” he says.
After that, Adams was transported to hospital with minor injuries and doesn’t know if the Conservation Service ever attended the scene. The moose was eventually lifted onto a flatbed truck with the help of a crane.
While Adams realizes no one was prepared for the fluke accident, he believes the situation could have been handled differently by police for the sake of the animal. He doesn’t wish to put the RCMP down, but he questions why a handgun was used instead of a more powerful firearm, like a rifle.
“There’s no reason they should have to put 15 bullets into a suffering animal. I think it created a lot more misery for it,” he says.
Kelowna RCMP Cpl. Joe Duncan said last week the animal was badly injured, and added this was the first time he’d heard of a moose so close to the downtown area.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
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21 responses
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Grab a brain, think about what you are doing before you start firing to no end.Cruel.All I have to say is what the hell is wrong with our society when there is no money left for health care or conservation officers… both are so pathetic in so many ways.
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Poor moose.I don’t think its fair to speculate and blame the conservation officers though because the article didn’t say whether they were even contacted.I think there are only 2 of them in Kelowna.Check out the article in the province.http://www.theprovince.com/news/conservation+officers+becoming+endangered+species/11031429/story.html
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Poor moose.I don’t think its fair to make assumptions and blame the conservation officers.I think there are only two of them in Kelowna and it doesn’t even say whether they were called or not.Check out the article in the province.http://www.theprovince.com/news/conservation+officers+becoming+endangered+species/11031429/story.html
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RCMP carry 12. gauges in their cruisers if its not in the front passenger seat it’s in their trunk.
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lol you have no clue wtf you are talking about do you…a.44.45 or.357 are more than capable of killing a moose….but then they are far more powerful than a 9mm which can barely penetrate the hide of a moose at best let alone kill one. Also it was the middle of the night and he was the only car on the road and was reportedly doing the speed limit so how exactly did you get that he was driving like a jerk…and the fact that you refer to a handgun as a “pistol gun” clearly shows that you don’t have a clue wtf you are talking about.
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Wrong I can drop a moving moose with one shot from my.270 or my.303. most RCMP cruisers are outfitted with a 12. gauge at least that’s more than capable of dispatching an injured moose. 15 shots with a 9mm is ridiculous and these officers should be ashamed of their actions.
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The members should have been using shotgun slugs instead of their 9mm.I’ve seen it take 10 shots just to dispatch a deer with a 9mm.Poorly done.
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Really the moose came out of no where?Find that hard to beleive. See these guys regularly and can see the, a mile away in the ditch never mode in the middle of town. As for the police apperatley none of them are hunters. 15 shots please!
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Sad the moose had to suffer twice. First by being hit, then being shot 15 times. I am glad the 2 men are OK !
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15 shots come on! With a hand gun at that…..What were they thinking? I thought the police carried rifles in the trunk of their cruisers?
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4:00 A.M. Is not the time to find a Conservation Officer in a hurry!!I guess they could have left the poor animal to suffer while they waited for aC. O.
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If conservation officer can`t be there a police officer should have a weapon that can put down an animal with one shot.
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15 shots to put it down, really?A hunter can take a full size adult moose down with one shot.Why the hell wasn’t the conservation officer there right away?
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