One hiker, who is typically prepared for bear encounters, faced a scenario she never imagined.
What You Need To Know
Jennifer Pharr Davis and her children survived a collision with a 400-pound black bear. The bear did not survive
According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Buncombe County makes about 42% of the calls about bears for the entire state
NCDOT said engineers will reevaluate crash data on I-26 between the French Broad River and The Blue Ridge Parkway over the coming weeks to determine if any changes need to be made
That hiker is Jennifer Pharr Davis, and she founded the Blue Ridge Hiking Company when she was 24 years old. The trails have served as her outlet for a long time. She was also announced a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012.
In August, Pharr Davis showed Spectrum News 1 how she prepares for anything and everything she might encounter while hiking.
“When I was 21, I hiked the entire Appalachian Trail,” Pharr Davis said.
She has seen her fair share of bears.
“I have seen hundreds of bears hiking, camping, living in Asheville, and the only time I was scared for my life was driving I-26,” she said.
The night was Oct. 26, and that was the night Pharr Davis and her kids survived a collision with a 400-pound black bear.
“There was nothing else to do, there was no time to respond,” Pharr Davis said.
Her children were in the backseat, she said.
“A second earlier, I probably would’ve swerved and had a really bad accident,” Pharr Davis said. “A second later and I think the bear would’ve gone through our windshield.”
The bear did not survive.
“When you’re going 60 miles per hour down an interstate and an animal that large jumps into you, you are out of control,” Pharr Davis said. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s not like being in the wilderness where you can check off all these bear safety strategies and make sure you’re doing all the right things. I was doing all the right things, and I still almost died.”
She’s hoping to spark change after being told it was the fifth bear-related collision on I-26 that week.
“There’s 140 hot spots in North Carolina, and this is one of them,” Pharr Davis said.
According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Buncombe County makes about 42% of the calls about bears for the entire state.
“Bears, again, are going through that hyperphagia period in the fall, so they’re spending 23-24 hours of the day focusing on finding food,” Ashley Hobbs said, who is the Assistant Black Bear & Furbearer Biologist of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “Making those big movements between food resources, which tends to have them crossing those major interstates.”
Pharr Davis has since started a petition advocating local and state leaders for cost-effective solutions.
“Things you can do, like use culverts big enough to allow animals to pass through, and that is one of the many mitigation strategies,” Pharr Davis said.
She is overwhelmed by the response to her petition, and said she reached out to department officials and felt acknowledged.
“I feel very heard in terms of bringing this issue to their awareness, and some of them already know about it,” Pharr Davis said.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation said previously examined patterns on I-26 found no information indicating that additional crossing structures would substantially reduce collision frequency.
They included that 6% of crashes were animal-related collisions.
In light of recent events, NCDOT said engineers will reevaluate crash data on I-26 between the French Broad River and the Blue Ridge Parkway over the coming weeks to determine if any changes need to be made.