More needs to be done to prevent moose collisions: fire chief

A volunteer firefighter says he's seen too many people killed and injured in moose-vehicle collisions in the province, and it's time for government to do more to control the moose population.

Jamie Budden, the volunteer fire chief in Whitbourne, says there are far too many accidents involving moose along the province's highways.

"In this area right now, there's probably two moose vehicle accidents a day. We don't respond to all of them because some of them are minor in nature, but there is quite a number of moose vehicle accidents per day in this area," he said.

"Certain times of the year, you're getting more moose accidents than other times of the year and right now we're going through a stretch again that there's a lot of moose on our highways and we're getting a lot of moose accidents."

Last week, a 20-year-old woman was injured in a moose-vehicle collision.

Budden said while there are measures being taken by the provincial government to help prevent these kinds of accidents, it's time to take further action.

"Government is doing a great job of cutting back brush and public awareness and everything else, but I think there's more that can be done," said Budden.

"There's too many moose — I think government should sit down and look at it again and maybe do something like Alberta's doing with the deer, where you can just go into a local drug store and buy a set of moose tags and go and get a moose. It's a way of reducing the moose population, and it needs to be reduced."

Budden said there have been too many serious injuries and fatalities just along the 75-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway his department is responsible for, and he's tired of the carnage.