Life changes in an instant on the road
My first overnight stop on the Alcan was in Whitehorse, Yukon. Slept and work up at first light and started driving again about 5:30 am going through Whitehorse looking for coffee. Nothing was open yet so figured I would get some later down the road. About. Ten minutes south of Whitehorse during the start of the day's first light outside I could see a vehicle approaching me about a quarter mile away. I would guess we were both driving about 45 to 50 miles per hour as the darkness waned and the morning light creeped over the mountains to the east.
All of a sudden from my left side of the road a large moose ran out of the darkness of the roads edge and into the path of the car approaching me. The vehicle's hood drove under the moose's belly causing the full body of the moose to impact the windshield crushing the front of the car, glass and top with the moose bouncing off the vehicle into my path!
I was able to swerve to the right stopping just past the bloody carcass on the highway. The car came to a stop in the middle of the road just across the centerline where I had just swerved out of the way. Flashers on to warn other vehicles as I got out to render any aid I could. Luckily my phone worked a 911 call & I'm off to help. My 40 year old paramedic training flashed in my mind as I crossed the highway to the vehicle. The car was a Compact Nissan Murano or used to be as the hood and windshield both crushed into the passenger compartment. There was a couple in the car, both bloody, I couldn't tell if it was theirs or from the moose's impact.
They appeared to be a little older than me and I could hear noise coming from inside but could not tell at first from which one. The man was driving and I could quickly tell that he was deceased where the steering wheel was crushed into his head and chest. The impact so fast and sudden the expression and frightful look frozen in his face and eyes. I went around to the other side where his wife had been impacted by the glass of the windshield and frame. She had several lacerations and her legs/knees were hurt from being thrust forward as the deceleration of the impact happened.
She was crying and screaming as I tried to help her. She knew her husband was dead as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. It was about twenty minutes and several other vehicles stopped to offer help as well. The woman kept screaming that she was supposed to go (die) before her husband. It was a constant chant between her own pains and moanings. I used my shirt to cover her head wounds to stop the bleeding and talked with her until the medics arrived and extricated her from the vehicle. She was taken to the hospital while the Mounties investigated the accident.
This journey I'm taking is about many things, in search of some meaning to things going on in my life as well as some "Then Came Bronson" mentality of helping others along my way. Little did I realize it would be my first morning out and about 5 seconds faster and it would have been me impacting the moose! Life changes in a instant, we come into the reality of our time/space continuum intersecting our life and everything about our life changes, opportunities lost or do not matter in the grand scheme of things or others becoming more important than one thinks.
I had many hours driving the last three days down the vast western Canadian Rockies with no or very limited communication along my route. I drove from Watson Lake down Hwy 37 for over six hours without seeing another vehicle going or coming. It was like being in a void, only my music or road noise. The weather went from sunny to cloudy then snowing and back to rain as I came down off the mountains summit. Hours and hours to think about the accident, how I happened to be there and the impact to the lady and my own life. Did I like Jim Bronson help in the situation? I would like to think so in those lonely minutes until help arrived. Hearing my voice hopefully comforting her in that time of loss, pain, and overwhelming anxiety of the situation. I have always kept my control in many situations but lately feel like I've loss control of everything and hope to find it once again.
God bless the woman and her family in this time of loss, thank you Lord for giving me the calm voice when all around was in chaos.
Ice
All of a sudden from my left side of the road a large moose ran out of the darkness of the roads edge and into the path of the car approaching me. The vehicle's hood drove under the moose's belly causing the full body of the moose to impact the windshield crushing the front of the car, glass and top with the moose bouncing off the vehicle into my path!
I was able to swerve to the right stopping just past the bloody carcass on the highway. The car came to a stop in the middle of the road just across the centerline where I had just swerved out of the way. Flashers on to warn other vehicles as I got out to render any aid I could. Luckily my phone worked a 911 call & I'm off to help. My 40 year old paramedic training flashed in my mind as I crossed the highway to the vehicle. The car was a Compact Nissan Murano or used to be as the hood and windshield both crushed into the passenger compartment. There was a couple in the car, both bloody, I couldn't tell if it was theirs or from the moose's impact.
They appeared to be a little older than me and I could hear noise coming from inside but could not tell at first from which one. The man was driving and I could quickly tell that he was deceased where the steering wheel was crushed into his head and chest. The impact so fast and sudden the expression and frightful look frozen in his face and eyes. I went around to the other side where his wife had been impacted by the glass of the windshield and frame. She had several lacerations and her legs/knees were hurt from being thrust forward as the deceleration of the impact happened.
She was crying and screaming as I tried to help her. She knew her husband was dead as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. It was about twenty minutes and several other vehicles stopped to offer help as well. The woman kept screaming that she was supposed to go (die) before her husband. It was a constant chant between her own pains and moanings. I used my shirt to cover her head wounds to stop the bleeding and talked with her until the medics arrived and extricated her from the vehicle. She was taken to the hospital while the Mounties investigated the accident.
This journey I'm taking is about many things, in search of some meaning to things going on in my life as well as some "Then Came Bronson" mentality of helping others along my way. Little did I realize it would be my first morning out and about 5 seconds faster and it would have been me impacting the moose! Life changes in a instant, we come into the reality of our time/space continuum intersecting our life and everything about our life changes, opportunities lost or do not matter in the grand scheme of things or others becoming more important than one thinks.
I had many hours driving the last three days down the vast western Canadian Rockies with no or very limited communication along my route. I drove from Watson Lake down Hwy 37 for over six hours without seeing another vehicle going or coming. It was like being in a void, only my music or road noise. The weather went from sunny to cloudy then snowing and back to rain as I came down off the mountains summit. Hours and hours to think about the accident, how I happened to be there and the impact to the lady and my own life. Did I like Jim Bronson help in the situation? I would like to think so in those lonely minutes until help arrived. Hearing my voice hopefully comforting her in that time of loss, pain, and overwhelming anxiety of the situation. I have always kept my control in many situations but lately feel like I've loss control of everything and hope to find it once again.
God bless the woman and her family in this time of loss, thank you Lord for giving me the calm voice when all around was in chaos.
Ice
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