Couple survives head-on crash with bull moose

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

Lisa Bardole won't complain the next time her husband, Jon, drives too slow.

That's because she knows what it's like to hit a moose while traveling well under the speed limit.

A bull moose late Saturday night ran in front of Lisa and Jon Bardole's GMC Jimmy on Highway 2 south of Libby near Bear Creek. The moose crashed through the sport utility vehicle's windshield and crushed its roof.

The impact totaled the vehicle, killed the moose and left Lisa Bardole with hundreds of pieces of glass in her face and eyes. It also left the couple amazed to be alive.

"It was head-on," said Lisa Bardole, a fly fishing guide and instructor from Libby. "Most people don't walk away from crashes like that around here."

"Imagine what would've happened had I been going another 20 mph faster," Jon Bardole added. "It's (animals crossing the road) always on your mind and you're always looking, but sometimes it just happens. We're lucky to be alive."

The Bardoles had spent Saturday at Loon Lake with a television crew from Washington. Northwest Outdoors was filming Lisa Bardole for an upcoming fishing program.

Tired from the long day, Jon Bardole was driving about 50 mph toward the couple's home on Highway 2 about 15 miles south of Libby.

"I always drive slow because there's so many deer," he said. "A car passed us coming the other way. Just as he passed us, everything went black. We came to a dead stop."

"The moose came right through the windshield," he continued. "It must've been running across the road. This was no record moose, just a young bull still in velvet."

"One minute we were going along and the next thing, 'boom!' Lisa Bardole added. "I didn't see it coming. At first, I thought 'what did we hit?' There was just broken glass everywhere."

The Bardoles were treated and released from St. John's Lutheran Hospital in Libby. Neither broke any bones, but they were bruised. Lisa Bardole, who took the brunt of the impact, also scratched a cornea and had a concussion.

Willie Toth and Dave Mills, producers of Northwest Montana, planned to include the accident with the moose in their program on the Libby area.

Both Toth and Mills want to make sure if viewers come here to fish, they're aware of the dangers.

"We filmed crosses on the side of the road where people were killed primarily from animals running out," Toth said.

As for the television program, Toth was pleased with the four days of filming which included floating the Kootenai River, fishing at Hawkins Lake and filming at Moose Ridge Bed & Breakfast. The 30-minute program will air in September on public access television in Bremerton, Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend, all in Washington.

"Libby is a wonderful place with exceptional lakes," Toth said. "We definitely want to come back and do more."