Wardens warn motorists of moose on roadways > Old Town man dies in I-95 collision; Madawaska residents unhurt after driver hits animal on Route 1

OLD TOWN — Accidents involving moose and vehicles, including one on Interstate 95 in Old Town Wednesday in which a man died, have triggered a warning from game wardens to motorists to be wary of moose wandering onto roadways.

This is the time of the year that ferocious black flies and other insects drive moose and deer out of the woods and into open areas in search of relief, V. Paul Reynolds, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Wednesday.

That apparently was what happened Wednesday morning when Frederick F. Donovan, 75, of Patten was killed instantly when his car struck a young cow moose in the southbound lane of I-95 near the Alton Bog in Old Town.

Game Warden Dave Georgia, who was responding to a call of a dead moose on the highway at 5:45 a.m., found Donovan and his badly damaged vehicle in the median strip. The vehicle’s hood was crushed by the impact with the moose, estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 pounds, according to Georgia and investigating Trooper Sean Hashey.

Later Wednesday, three Madawaska residents escaped injury when the pickup in which they were riding missed one moose only to hit another head-on.

Felix Michaud, 32, was hauling a trailer behind his pickup traveling south on U.S. Route 1 in Van Buren when he spotted one of the moose. In trying to avoid the moose, he struck another that he did not see until it was too late.

On impact, the second moose hurtled over the hood, smashed the windshield and landed in the trailer, knocking much of its contents, including a snowmobile, out into the road.

Jeff Mechalko of the Van Buren Police Department said that neither Michaud nor his two passengers, 35-year-old Glenn Thibeault and a male juvenile whom he did not name, were hurt in the accident.

The bull moose, its weight estimated at 500 to 600 pounds, died at the scene.

Mechalko estimated the combined damage to Michaud’s 1985 Toyota pickup, the trailer and its contents at $1,000.

In another incident involving a car-moose collision, a spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said that Maine state Trooper Mark Brooks escaped serious injury when his cruiser ran into a moose on Route 4 in Phillips late Tuesday night.

Damage to the trooper’s car was estimated at $1,500.