Ugh! You are not gonna believe this… but here I am writing away about how cautious we have to be driving in Alaska during the darker winter days!   Well, my hubby and dad were driving back home from Anchorage Day before yesterday and they hit a Moose… actually they hit two..  My hubby was driving around a blind curve on icy roads and there they were… no way to get around them… He hit one and it flipped onto the hood, bounced off the roof off the car.  The other moose that he is sure he sideswiped, but it ran off, so he isn’t sure.  The one that went over the car died. 

Moose and Cars have been having this problem since time began.  Well.. okay not since time began… but it sure seems like it.  We have some where around 180,000 Moose in Alaska and as big as Alaska is you would think they would have no problem staying away from the roads… 

I can’t completely blame them, because the DOT-Department of Transportation has to put sand and salt on some areas of the roads to keep the ice from building up too thick, and it’s the salt that draws the Caribou, Moose and Buffalo. They tend to lick the salt off the roads. There isn’t a whole lotta places that they have to salt, but it also depends on weather conditions too, some years it is just bad, bad, bad and they end up sand salting a lot of road, and other years it is only in spots.  The salt not only draws the bigger wildlife, but it also can destroy by rusting, underneath your car too.  But it is the most effective against major ice build up and with -50 and -60 weather, ice build-up can be a big problem.

Anyways, my hubby and dad both walked away from the totally wrecked car with just some scratches from the shattered windshield and they count themselves blessed because it could have been so much worse.  So again I say… we have to be so careful driving here at night, because we just can’t see them very well… if at all… most times. And sometimes no matter how careful you are, you still may have an animal… vehicle… run-in… Sigh!

Later…

~K

Trackback URI | Comments RSS