WOMAN COLLIDES WITH GRIZZLY BEAR - Motorcycle Crash a Unique Encounter

  • Published
  • By Calgary Herald
ALBERTA, Canada --  A 50-year-old Canadian woman killed a grizzly bear last year, and she didn't even have a gun.

According to the Calgary Herald, the woman was riding her motorcycle in Kananaskis Country, Calgary's mountainous backyard, when a 500-pound grizzly ran out in front of her. With little time to stop or react, the woman plowed into North America's largest predator, killing the bear and sending the woman hurtling over the handlebars of the bike.

Her husband, who was riding another motorcycle just behind her, witnessed the collision, which was just south of Highway Pass in Alberta. He watched the scene unfold in front of him as his wife struck the animal and flipped over the handlebars -- and the bear -- into a crumpled heap on the roadway. The motorcycle ricocheted off the grizzly and skidded down the road.

Jamie Campbell of the Foothills Regional Emergency Medical Service told the Herald that smashing into the bear was pretty much like hitting a wall: "It stopped; the lady kept going."

Miraculously, the woman, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, escaped the frightening encounter without life-threatening injuries, EMS told the Herald. She was taken to Oilfields Hospital in Black Diamond with injuries to her hands from the fall.

"There's lots of wildlife that gets hit, but not bears and motorcycles very often," Campbell told the Herald. "So this is quite uncommon. Deer versus cars -- lots. Occasionally, deer versus motorcycle. I don't think I've done a bear versus motorcycle in my career yet."

Campbell said the woman was lucky to come away without more serious injuries because a grizzly bear is a "pretty solid" object to hit.

Not to mention what might have happened to the woman if the bear were only wounded and hadn't died on impact. An angry grizzly can kill a person with one powerful swipe of its 3-to-4-inch claws.