ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Megan Stone says her 18-year-old daughter Autumn is lucky to be alive after hitting a moose Monday evening while driving down an icy Anchorage road.
“That’s what we’ve been hearing this entire ordeal, from the EMTs to the doctors, they are amazed that she’s alive,” Stone said.
Autumn was driving home on Minnesota Drive near the Raspberry exit when the moose appeared in the roadway. Her mother said she does not believe her daughter had any time to brake.
When firefighters arrived on scene, they found a badly damaged vehicle with Autumn trapped inside. It took several crews to cut her out with the “Jaws of Life” rescue tools.
Anchorage firefighter Jason Dolph said moose are particularly dangerous when they are hit at highway speeds.
“Typically when a car strikes a moose, that moose becomes suspended in the air,” Dolph explained. “And when that moose then lands on the vehicle and, in this case, landed on the hood and kind of the windshield and roof area, we see forces of 30 to 40,000 pounds being put onto that car.”
Fish and Game Biologist Cory Stantorf said there are usually about 100 moose-vehicle collisions in the Anchorage bowl every year, but now is the time when they start to increase.
“Not only do we have moose moving because of the rut, following cows, we are also doing that morning commute in the pitch-black, kids are going to school in the pitch-black, and there’s not a lot of contrast without snow to illuminate these moose,” Stantorf said. “So drivers really need to slow down because there’s just not the reaction time that we have in the summer.”
As for Autumn, her mother said Wednesday that she is still in the ICU, where she is expected to remain for several days. Megan Stone said her daughter has some brain bruising, some lacerations and a broken hand, but doesn’t appear to have any catastrophic injuries.
Stone said she’s seen pictures of the wreck and is relieved her daughter survived.
“It’s horrifying to see those photos as her mom, but I’m also grateful, because I can put into context just how close we were to losing her,” she said.
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