CAMPBELLTON, N.B. — Fatal accidents caused by moose on northern New Brunswick roads could be avoided with a $5 million fence, says one man.

Reid MacPherson lost his 23-year-old daughter as she drove home to Dalhousie for the Thanksgiving weekend in 1999.

A moose struck by a tractor-trailer was hurled into the path of the car the young woman was driving, and she died instantly.

A mobile electric fence was installed along a five-kilometre stretch of highway near Belledune about 18 months ago and local officials say the Electrobraid Fence Ltd. product seems to be successful in keeping moose from the highway.

The fence is the latest in a series of measures taken by governments to keep moose off the roads. Relatively inexpensive, the fence costs about $6,500 compared to about $50,000 for a chain-link fence over a five-km stretch of road.

Although the fence is being evaluated as part of a three-year trial, a local moose accident committee doesn’t want the province to wait any longer to put up more.

They want all of Hwy. 11 from Miramichi to Campbellton to be protected by the electrified fence. The committee is scheduled to meet at the end of this month and is likely to agree to lobby the province to start installing more of the electrified fencing.

“With the reports we have, the biggest concentration of moose sightings seems to be outside Miramichi all the way to Campbellton,” MacPherson says. “You’re talking $5 million to $6 million (in fencing costs) — and what’s that if you save even just one more life?”