A motorcycle rider collided with a grizzly bear last Tuesday evening and came away with broken bones and a story that’s impressed his pals at the Regina fire station where he works.
Ken Hauk was riding his new Harley-Davidson with some friends in Kootenay Park, near the B.C.-Alberta boundary, when a 260-lb grizzly charged onto the road in front of him.
He told the Calgary Sun that he had no time for anything but an attempted swerve, and a bit of swearing. It was raining at the time, and Hauk was moving at about 90 km/h.
The 50-year-old rider was left with a broken arm and damaged vertebrae plus some scrapes to the face. The bear came of a tad worse, dying instantly. Hauk told the Sun he hit the bear “smack-dab in the middle” and then flew over the bars about 60 metres. “It was like hitting a concrete barrier,” he said.
The crash is significant to the population of grizzlies in Kootenay Park, where there are only about 15 of the bears. Several have been killed by vehicles and trains in the last few years in national parks along the B.C.-Alberta boundary.
Read the Sun story here.
We regard a 265lb grizzly as a small bear. They get much larger! The rider was lucky to survive this incident.
Forgot the link…
http://cmgonline.com/cgi-bin/soapbox/index750.cgi?read=148671
Someone sleeping at the switch?
LOL
Good thing the bear was killed – I have a nasty mental image of a pi**ed-off grizzly chewing on an injured rider who can’t even get up off the road…..
I’m glad it’s a bear nobody can survive in a collision with my wife.
Wha happened to the Harley man ?