Warning: This story contains graphic images.
Sometimes, little is better.
That's why a Vancouver Island man is crediting a Smart car with saving his life after a head-on collision with a massive bull elk last week.
Chris Markevich said he was driving to the airport in Comox, B.C. Thursday night to pick up his spouse at around 10:45 when he turned onto Highway 19.
It was late at night and dark out as Markevich flicked off his high beams to let a car pass him – and that’s when the crash happened.
“I put my high beams back on and all of a sudden, elk, boom!” he said. “Not even a second to react of even to gasp. It was just flash, and boom.”
Markevich had hit what witnesses later described as a 900-pound bull with full antlers that had found its way into the middle of his lane.
The force of the impact killed the elk instantly and sent the car airborne.
“It felt like I was flying through the air for probably a good second or two. I could hear the wind coming through the windshield,” he said.
He gripped the steering wheel as hard as he could as the car rolled over several times, wondering if those panicked moments would be his last.
Miraculously, they weren’t.
“Then all of a sudden I land and I’m right-side-up,” said Markevich. “I’m on the grass median, so I went from the right lane all the way over to the median next to the left lane. I’m probably at least 50 feet from where the impact happened, at least.”
Witnesses rushed over to help him with visible cuts and scrapes as he spat shards of glass out of his mouth.
Paramedics arrived quickly after and rushed him to hospital for treatment.
The elk was so large that it had to be towed from the scene along with the mangled Smart car.
Somehow, though his car was a complete write-off, Markevich didn’t suffer injuries other than stiffness, cuts and bruises.
He’s been told several times to buy a lottery ticket.
“Essentially everyone that saw it, to the paramedics, to the nurses, to the doctors, to all to my friends who’ve seen the pictures say you’re lucky to be alive,” he said. “I honestly thought I was done as soon as that impact took place.”
Despite the approximately 1,500-pound Smart Car only weighing several hundred pounds more than the elk, many said the crash could have been worse in another vehicle.
“Paramedics along with several other witnesses and doctors said if I was in any other car, the bumper would have hit the elk at the knees, propelling it head-first through the windshield and impaling me,” he said.
In a way, it’s sweet justice for the Campbell River resident, who was teased relentlessly when he first bought the diminutive two-seater.
“My friends were merciless when I first got my car,” he said. “But now I say Smart Car has a customer for life.”
