Manitoba man walks away from crash with 400-pound bear

Philip Paul-Martin's quiet, midnight drive along a Manitoba highway earlier this week turned into a hairy encounter.

Going about 100 km/h, south of the community of La Broquerie on Monday, Paul-Martin had just enough time to blink before the headlights of his Pontiac G6 lit up the solid frame of a 400-pound black bear.

"I didn't have enough time to react," he said. "I had about a millisecond to think 'oh' and then, boom. It just hit."

The crash crumpled the front of his car, which rolled to a stop as a stunned Paul-Martin freed himself from the seatbelt and airbag in order to check himself for injuries and to make sure the G6 wasn't on fire.

In the end, all he had was a sore and swollen wrist and hand.

"Fortunately, I was belted in and the airbags worked perfectly," he said. "I feel very fortunate just to suffer a minor injury. It could have been a lot worse."

It was for the bruin, which ended up dead in the ditch.

'Never a bear'

"I've heard of people hitting moose, I've heard of people hitting deer and all kinds of things, but never a bear," Paul-Martin said. "I guess I'm unique [but] unique feels hard."

Manitoba Public Insurance reports 10,000 wildlife-vehicle collisions every year and about 80 per cent of those involve deer. An average of just 110 collisions involve a bear.

Paul-Martin, who grew up in the area and was headed to his sister's house in Marchand, said he's driven those roads many times — as well as travelled across the country — and has never hit wildlife before.

When driving during the day, he's always scanning the ditches, on alert for wildlife that might dash onto the road.

"But I couldn't see anything [at that time of night]," he said, adding the impact "felt like a really stiff hockey check."

He recently returned to Manitoba after spending time working at a diamond mine in northern Ontario and was looking forward to a good night's sleep at his sister's.

"But that's not what happened."