When a 200-kilogram black bear was hit by a car in western Quebec's Pontiac region and hurled into the air, there was simply no time for the driver of a SUV to swerve.
In a bizarre accident, the 25-year-old Ottawa woman driving a SUV and the 40-year-old man in the seat behind her were killed instantly when the animal plowed through the windshield with such force that it shot straight through the back window.
Only the woman's 28-year-old boyfriend, who was riding in the front passenger seat, survived.
Meanwhile, the two men in the car that originally hit the bear were unharmed.
The freak collision near Luskville, Que., said MRC des Collines de l'Outaouais police.
The car was being driven along the two-lane stretch of highway by a 23-year-old Gatineau man with a 19-year-old Gatineau man in the passenger seat. The adolescent bear did not survive.
MRC des Collines spokesman Const. Martin Fournel said that the bear was thrown up in the air by the low-riding, aerodynamic car, then struck the SUV's higher, more vertical windshield on the driver's side.
"They had no chance," he said.
The driver's identity is not being released at the request of her family, but the rear passenger was identified as Steven Leon, 40, of Gatineau, Que. Gatineau is directly north of Ottawa.
The driver's boyfriend, whose name has not been released, was in the front passenger seat and suffered only minor upper body injuries. He was treated at the Hospital and released.
Leon's last Facebook update was posted just after 11 a.m. that morning. "What a great day outside," it reads. "Time for some 3 wheelin'. Who says Mondays suck!!! LOL"
Fournel said alcohol was not a factor in the crash. The speed limit along that stretch of highway is 90 km/h, and it was not yet known whether speed played a role. Police, paramedics, firefighters and Quebec's transportation ministry probed the scene, and their investigation continues.
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