Randolph Couple Survives I-89 Crash with Moose

Randolph Couple Survives I-89 Crash with Moose

Randolph's Carl and Ann Brandon were all smiles Monday, just hours following their harrowing I-89 crash on Sunday night. (Herald photo / Robert Eddy)

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.

By Sandy Cooch