Something on your windshield? Man drives 170 km after hitting moose

A motorist on the Burin Peninsula Highway was able to drive away from a collision with a moose Thursday morning.

But he wasn't able to drive past the Holyrood RCMP.

"He had to have assistance from other motorists to pull the moose off the car, and he considered himself to be OK so he kept on driving another 170 kilometres until he was pulled over by the RCMP in the Holyrood area,"Staff Sgt. Boyd Merrill told CBC News.

The driver, who wasn't hurt in the collision,hit the moose just south of Swift Current. With the windshieldpulverized on the passenger side and the driver's side glass barely intact enough to see through,the man carried on towards St. John's.

Merrill compared the reduced visibility to driving with your windshield covered in frost, not to mention having the wind blowing through the smashed glass.

"It would've been a physical discomfort as well as an inability to see clearly," he said."It wouldn't have been very comfortable."

• What moose? Woman can't recall dramatic collision

The driverwent along for two hours, at a reduced speed, before the Holyrood RCMP stopped him and, as Merrill put it, "encouraged him to call a tow truck."

"That means he had no choice," said Merrill.

He said no charges were laid against the driver, even though technically it could have been a ticketable offence.

"We're a compassionate and caring organization and when you look at what the gentleman went through, a ticket on top of the troubles that he had probably wouldn't have been in the best interest of the public," he said.

"We were just happy he was not hurt and he didn't hurt anybody else, so he wasn't charged with anything. A quick handshake and off he went."

It's not the first time a driver has carried on after striking a moose on Newfoundland highways.

In May 2012, a Norris Arm woman drove 40 kilometres to work, bleeding and with her roof peeled back after hitting a moose.

She had no memory of the accident and didn't realize she was hurt until co-workers insisted she go to hospital.

Operation Impact

Thursday's accident comes on the heels of a weekend of heightened traffic enforcement.

RCMP divisions across the province checked 3,061 vehicles over the Thanksgiving long weekend as part of Operation Impact, a national initiative aimed at curbing traffic violations.

They charged motorists with 843 driving offences, including 628 cases of speeding or aggressive driving and sixinstances of cellphone use and distracted driving.

The weekend began with a fatal accident on Veterans Memorial Highway.