Roadside moose hunters nearly cause collision on Northern Peninsula

A woman who almost crashed her car into roadside moose hunters on the Northern Peninsula is hoping her story will encourage others to be safer.

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Jennifer Barnable of St. John's was driving through the fog on Route 430 near the St. Lunaire-Griquet exit Monday when she suddenly came upon multiple vehicles blocking her way — forcing her to swerve around to avoid a collision.

"At one point there were three cars, two on on side of the road and one on the other," she said.

"They were driving erratically, wandering all over the road, stopped completely in the middle of the road, lights off completely — it was really frightening actually."

Barnable said she saw six vehicles in total on that trip, including the three that almost made her crash. She told CBC's Corner Brook Morning Show that even days later she is still shaken up by how close she came to being injured — or worse.

"I thought, this could be the very moment that I could lose my life," she said.

"If you could have only seen the manoeuvres I made to get around them, my heart is still pounding and it's been a day and a half since then."

Once she pulled over and calmed herself down, she managed to use her phone to send out a tweet to alert other drivers of the hunters.

Barnable credits a combination of luck and good reflexes for saving her that day, and now feels a responsibility to get the message out so that others don't get hurt in the future.

She thinks if hunters are so fixated on looking for moose that they can't pay attention to the roads, they should just get out of their vehicles and do the hunting in the woods away from other drivers.

"I know it's a sport, it's part of the cull, but they have to remember there are other people around them that they need to keep safe as well," she said.

"If hunters are so set on killing a creature, I would prefer them not to kill a human creature that also has a family waiting for them on the other end of the road."