More than 6,000 large animals were hit on Norwegian roads last year alone, nearly 2,000 of them moose. The collisions have killed 16 motorists in the past five years alone. The animals nearly always die a painful death, if they're not killed instantly.
Trond Kjetil Kverna survived a collision with a moose in 2006, and can attest to the costs involved, both physical and financial.
"I was driving about 100 kilometers an hour (60 mph) and it was dark," Kverna told Aftenposten, recalling the night he was driving on the main E-18 highway between Oslo and Sydeberg.
"Suddenly a moose darted into my lane, it came from the left and ran between cars in the oncoming lane," said Kverna, an experienced motorist who drives a truck for a living. He said that everything happened so fast that he didn't have time to react, and ended up with the moose coming right through his windshield.
The huge moose are especialy dangerous because their legs are so long and their trunks so heavy. Cars normally hit them in the legs, hurling the animal onto the vehicle..
Kverna said he remembers waking up in a field about 150 meters from the road. His injuries kept him away from work for three months. Emergency crews said that from the looks of his ruined car, a passenger in the car would have been killed.
State highway officials are stepping up measures to keep moose and other wildlife off Norwegian roads, especially in Hedmark County, where the accident rate is the highest. They're setting up winter feeding stations away from the road, and cutting back vegetation near the road, to allow motorists a better overview and reduce the possibility of wildlife suddenly darting out of the bush.
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Some fencing projects are underway, but officials said it's too expensive to fence off the highway that runs through the entire length of Osterdalen, for example.