FREDERICTON, N.B. — A new public awareness campaign has the province of New Brunswick hoping it will be able to help prevent moose-vehicle collisions on its highways.

The public safety campaign will see thousands of brochures, posters and an educational video detailing ways to prevent highway accidents involving moose distributed throughout the province including truck stops.

The message is urging drivers to “slow down, stay alert and stay alive.”

Public Safety Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney, Transportation Minister Percy Mockler and Natural Resources Minister Jeannot Volpe launched the campaign.

Statistics show between 1995 and 2000, there were 1,482 collisions involving moose in New Brunswick. Approximately 250 such collisions happen throughout the province yearly with one to four people killed in those collisions.

The prime season for these accidents is in June, July and August, usually between dusk and dawn when driver visibility is severely limited and when moose are most active.

The province will also distribute the brochures, posters and videos at Service New Brunswick outlets across the province as well as at tourist centres and other areas where traffic is heavy.

“The message that we want to get across is when you see these (moose warning) signs on the road, it means something. They aren’t just there for a haphazard reason. They are there because you really need to pay attention, especially in those areas,” says Blaney. “If you are travelling a lot and you don’t see a moose for a long period of time, maybe you tend to just put it in the back of your head. So we want to bring it to the front burner and jog peoples’ memories and attention and capture their attention on it again.”