ODDS ‘N’ SODS — Rent a wreck

During the 1980s, I worked as the technical service supervisor of Eastern Canada for the explosives division of Canadian Industries Limited (CIL).

The job required travelling throughout the region, which meant a lot of flying and car rentals. When I travelled to Newfoundland, I would, as a rule, rent a car from the Budget car rental at the Deer Lake airport. On this particular trip, I drove a rented car to the Advocate open-pit asbestos mine, near Baie Verte, for a few days of work.

My task there required high-speed photography, so I called CIL’s Montreal office and had a special camera sent to me at Deer Lake. Accompanied by David Joyce (now with ICI Explosives in Toronto), I headed for the airport to pick up the photographic equipment.

The night was particularly dark, and David and I were chatting as we drove in the rented car. Suddenly, a huge moose appeared in the middle of our side of the road.

There was no time to stop the car, and another vehicle was coming in the other direction. We hit the moose in the backside and it slid onto the hood before it fell off to the left of our car.

The car was a mess, but neither of us was hurt. We managed to drive into Deer Lake, report the accident to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and pick up another rental from Budget.

Two weeks later, I was back at Deer Lake, where I rented yet another car from Budget. It was raining buckets when I arrived in Baie Verte, so rather than drive the car to the CIL explosives plant on the mine site, I left the car in the mine parking lot and had someone pick me up at the gatehouse of the mine.

We worked in the lower section of the pit that day, but, on the upper-level benches, another crew was loading a blast pattern that was to be shot at the end of the shift.

Following the blasting, I returned to the parking lot to find that my car had been hit in two places with fly rock from the upper bench. Needless to say, I felt sheepish when I returned the car — the second damaged in as many weeks — to Budget.

“You know,” said the manager of the rental agency, “I think the next time you rent a vehicle from us, it should be a 10-speed bicycle. It will be a lot safer for you and a lot cheaper for us.”

— The author, a mining consultant, resides in Beloeil, Que.