Last Wednesday, around 9:15 p.m., I heard a crash followed by a squeal of brakes in front of my house. A car had hit a moose on Ohio Street in Bangor. The windshield and roof of the car were crushed. The 600-pound bull lay behind my mailbox breathing its last breath. The driver somehow maintained control of the car and kept it on the road rather than careening over a 20-foot drop-off into a stream bed on both sides of the road.

The driver was able to get out of the car and said he thought he hit a horse. He said he didn’t see anything and didn’t hit the brakes until after striking it. His passenger was not so lucky. He was pinned inside the car by the crushed roof and windshield. In what must be the luckiest day of his life, the passenger was able to walk away after being cut out of the car by the fire department.

What luck! A few more inches and the windshield and roof would have maimed or killed him. A few more inches and the moose would have struck the driver’s side with greater impact, which in turn may have sent the car over the 20-foot drop-off into the stream bed.

It seems that somewhere in the state there is a fatal accident with a moose about every day lately. What we don’t hear about is all the accidents with moose that are not fatal, such as the one in Bangor.

Duane Hanselman

Bangor