It was about 9:30 p.m. on a dark, drizzling, late October night. Erin, my 17 year-old daughter, had finished her shift at Red Robin on Dimond and was driving home in our S-10 Blazer. Southbound on the Seward Highway, she was about to get a lesson in Alaska highway dangers.

A huge, fully grown, female moose grazed on the west side of the highway in the area between O'Malley and Huffman roads. The moose decided to cross the road. As she lumbered across the highway shoulder and into the roadway, the S-10 sped toward the inevitable. I received the phone call -- my daughter was audibly shaken but physically OK. The moose's head collided with the upper, passenger-side corner of the windshield.

Had the S-10 been 15 seconds slower or the moose 15 seconds faster, 1,200 pounds of moose may have pummeled through the windshield, crushing everything in the front seat of the car. I still shudder to think about it -- every parent's nightmare. Others haven't been so lucky. But what can be done to take luck out of the picture and prevent such a tragedy? Answer: Do not invite moose to browse in the Alaska highway corridors.

The Alaska Moose Federation has been actively, professionally engaging the Alaska Department of Transportation in trying to implement brush-clearing wildlife mitigation measures. AMF also works at moose salvage operations and moving orphaned moose calves away from highway corridors to suitable locations.

The greatest current obstacle is an unfathomable lack of DOT funding support for AMF's public/private sector efforts along highway corridors that will save millions of dollars in long-term maintenance and reduced vehicle moose/vehicle collisions. This essential public safety measure can easily, cost-effectively be accomplished within existing budgetary authority. Saving the lives of people and moose and reducing vehicle repair costs via common sense approaches to accomplishing government responsibilities is, to me, a "no brainer."

You may recall the day in December 2007 when SPC Stephen "Max" Cavanaugh lost his life in a vehicle/moose collision near Dowling on the New Seward. One of six people killed in such collisions in 2007, he had survived 300 convoys in Iraq as a turret gunner and continues to provide heroic service today through the organ donor program. Twenty-four airmen lost their lives in 1996 after an AWACS plane crashed because of geese after taking off from Elmendorf AFB. Handling wildlife quickly changed at airports after that tragic year, and the six human lives lost to moose collisions in 2007 should be "enough" to make changes on the highways as well.

Today and Sunday a number of retired and active military personnel will work on a project clearing moose-attracting browse from the Seward Highway right-of-way between Dimond and O'Malley. While the effort will commemorate Max, it is a community service dedicated to all those who have lost loved ones to moose/vehicle collisions that might have been avoided. The soldier's parents and then-Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell participated in a similar project in 2008, and Mr. and Mrs. Cavanaugh have asked Gov. Parnell for his continued support. Feel free to "honk your support" if you are traveling on the New Seward during this time and if you think we should improve highway safety by removing moose browse.

Please also consider contacting your state legislators and government officials to let them know that moose should not be attracted to highway corridors. Let them know that we expect government to work with organizations such as the Alaska Moose Federation to mitigate dangers to our highways. We need to "Get It Done!" before shortened fall days threaten a tragedy for another Anchorage family. DOT needs to step up to the plate and fix known moose collision corridors like the Anchorage portion of the New Seward.