by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: The Daily Gleaner
October 30, 2026

Bull moose browses beaver pond. Photo: Walter Ezell, Wikipedia

Dylan remembered the colourful fall leaves on his father’s body. And the blood. Lots of blood. His mother was gone, but he didn’t know where.

At dusk, the family had hit a moose near Shediac Bridge, only a short drive from Moncton.

Dylan was a toddler at the time, just short of three years old. He eventually recounted the story about the horrific crash to his grandfather.

“One day he told me when I was taking him to daycare that he had been at the back of the car, and all of a sudden his father was full of blood and leaves,” said Jean-Claude Robichaud, who is now 77.

“‘I cried, and I couldn’t see my mom,’ he said. Her seat had broken off and she was out of sight. But Dylan didn’t have a scratch. He was well strapped in his car seat in the back. My daughter was an airline pilot and always took safety very seriously.”

Robichaud talked to Brunswick News on the 16th anniversary of the deaths of his daughter Marie-Eve Rouselle, 26, and her husband Robin Rouselle, 29, on October 2nd, 2010. Marie-Eve was pregnant and her unborn child died too. The family was on their way back home from a wedding.

Ever since the collision, Robichaud has campaigned for highway safety, in particular places where large animals cross.

Hundreds of collisions

“Moose can’t read” warns NB Parks on its official Facebook page

Every year in New Brunswick, several hundred people hit moose in their vehicles. The ungulates can weigh up to 450 kilograms — close to 1,000 pounds  — and their brown fur makes them difficult to see when it’s dark.

Colliding with such a beast at high speed without warning often has nightmarish consequences.

On October 18th, at around 1 a.m., Shaelyn Pollock-Cooling was in labour and travelling from Campbellton in northern New Brunswick to give birth in Bathurst when the SUV she was travelling in struck a moose on a section of Rte. 11 that remains unfenced.

No one was injured, and the baby was delivered safe and sound the next day. But it was another close call that caught the attention of Health Minister John Dornan, who told reporters last week at the legislature his Liberal government wants to ensure birthing services are restored to the Campbellton Regional Hospital after many years’ absence.

Robichaud says when the southern section of Rte. 11 was eventually twinned a few years ago, complete with wildlife fencing, the provincial government asked his family to be the first to open it.

He also took the time to move the three white crosses that Robin’s father had lovingly made and placed along the old section of highway that acted as a memorial for their loved ones who died.

Robichaud and his wife, Roseline, dedicated themselves to bringing up Dylan, who is turning 19 in November and still lives with them in Dieppe. They made sure he saw a psychologist when he was little to help him adjust. The young man is now taking cyber security at Oulton College.

“He’s doing really well. We’re very proud of him.”

Safety measures

Robichaud wants to see more wildlife corridors and fencing installed on other dangerous stretches.

“Another big factor is twinning of the highway,” he said. “You clear more trees from the side of the road, and you can see the animals better.”

Most recently, the provincial government has been working on another hazardous stretch of highway between Miramichi and Bathurst.

The wildlife fencing and crossing project on Rte. 8, between the Bartibog and Tabusintac rivers, comes at a cost of more than $6 million.

The first phase was the construction of two wildlife crossing corridors beneath the highway that provide safe passage for animals moving through the area.

The second phase next year is the installation of fencing to guide wildlife toward these crossings and away from the roadway, reducing the collision risk.

Minister Chuck Chiasson. Photo by: Stephen MacGillivray for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick

Chuck Chiasson, the minister of transportation and infrastructure, says one of the most common complaints he hears is from people worried about hitting a moose. There are 30,000 of the animals in the province.

But he told Brunswick News there was only so much wildlife fencing and crossings that taxpayers could afford.

As it stands, New Brunswick has 82 wildlife crossings and 660 single-lane kilometres of wildlife fencing. But that’s not much coverage when you consider the province has 18,000 single-lane kilometres of highway.

Protective measures are expensive. Fencing is $160,000 per km and an animal crossing, similar to the installation of a large culvert, costs as much as $1.5 million.

“Just do the math on that. If we fenced the entire province, the costs would be huge,” Chiasson said. “We try to hit the hot spots where we’re seeing there are more accidents in a certain area. We use the collision data that’s given to us by the RCMP, we talk to the biologists in the Department of Natural Resources, and we try to go from there.”

Simple math would suggest it would be $2.8 billion to fence every highway. There would also be very high maintenance costs, as fencing needs to be repaired and cleared of vegetation every few years.

High risk province

Government map showing nowhere in the province is completely safe from moose collisions (click map to enlarge it)

The number of moose-vehicle collisions in New Brunswick has seesawed in recent years.

In 2020, there were 298 such crashes. In 2021, it was nearly the same, 293. The collisions steadily increased up to 2024, when 409 were recorded.

But in 2025, moose collisions went down again, to 347.

Chiasson said it was difficult to know why the numbers fluctuated. Did logging companies clearcut some areas that forced moose to move around? Did the moose population grow? Did more highway traffic make a difference? Did fencing help? He’s not entirely sure.

“The actual corridors across the highway make a difference, obviously, to the moose and to the deer so that they can cross and find breeding grounds and forage for food,” the minister said.

“The moose fencing helps too in the immediate area. But animals, by nature, are migratory. And so, they’re going to find their way across that road. Whether it’s walking to the actual underpass that’s built for them or walking to the end of the fence. They’ll find their way across.”

Moose use wildlife corridors

UNB Forestry & Environmental Management Professor Graham Forbes. Photo: University of New Brunswick

A biologist at the University of New Brunswick agreed with the last point. Graham Forbes studied four of the wildlife corridors built underneath Rte. 7 between Fredericton and Saint John when they were installed.

“We weren’t sure if they’d like the confined space, but they passed through,” Graham Forbes said in an interview. “Even bull moose with a wide set of antlers. There were lots of deer and bear that crossed too.”

The professor said that wildlife fencing and corridors make a difference in hotspots, but that some animals would make their way to openings at either end of the fencing. There’s only so much you can do in a province with thousands of kilometres of roads and vast stretches of wilderness, Forbes said.

“A lot of people are pleased that the fencing is there when they’re driving through some of these areas at night. It feels a little bit safer.”

The provincial government won’t increase annual moose hunting licences because it follows the recommendations of biologists to determine how to best preserve the species, a proud wildlife symbol.

The minister, meanwhile, is intrigued by some protective measures that have come across his desk. One proposal, he says, is to install big reflectors that help light up the side of the roadway where moose might be.

Another is a pitch by a New Brunswick firm that says it could deliver technology that uses artificial intelligence and sensors, complete with flashing road signs, to warn drivers about nearby hulking animals.

Chiasson said he’s willing to pilot such ideas.

“It’s really interesting to try and figure it out, and say, what can we do here? What’s going to help us? Because fencing’s not always the answer. We need other answers as well.”

This story was written by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Reporter for Brunswick News with files from Sarah Seeley and Trevor McNally.

For CBC coverage, click here.