A 27-year-old Auburn woman awoke from a coma two weeks after she was critically injured when the car she was riding in collided with a moose on the Maine Turnpike in Gray.

Taylor Norcross woke up at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, with friends and family looking on, her fiance told the Press Herald.

“She was looking around and smiling at me, smiling at the nurse and making gestures toward the nurse,” Frank Gatto said Thursday. “I gave her a kiss on the cheek and she puckered her lips. It was very encouraging.”

Gatto, 39, said Taylor isn’t talking, but neurologists have told him that she is “showing some very good, positive signs.”

“The brain is an amazing organ,” he said.

Last week, doctors took her off sedatives that had been keeping her in a medically induced coma, he said, but she remained in the coma for another week before coming out of it Wednesday night.

“She has a long way to go, but all we can do is hope that each day she shows a little bit more progress,” Gatto said, adding that Norcross is now breathing entirely on her own. Doctors will continue to closely monitor her over the next few days.

Gatto and Norcross were heading home from their jobs at Bay City Motors in Portland on Nov. 4 when the Infiniti sedan Gatto was driving hit and killed a moose that was on the Maine Turnpike near the Gray exit at about 8 p.m.

Gatto didn’t see the moose and said he had no time to brake before striking it. The 1,000-pound bull ripped the roof off the car. Gatto emerged unscathed, but Norcross suffered severe head injuries. She didn’t have other injuries from the crash, Gatto said.

Gatto posted on his Facebook page Wednesday night that Norcross woke up precisely two weeks after the crash.

“She is making eye contact and showing some positive movement, even moving her right side quite a bit. She even reached out and touched my face,” he wrote.

“That’s about as far as we’ve made it so far,” he wrote, “but it’s a great start. Go Taylor!”

Moose-vehicle collisions can be deadly and are not infrequent in Maine – there were 322 in 2014 and 212 through Sept. 15 of this year. That’s down from about 650 per year a decade ago.

Maine Department of Transportation officials have said they’ve taken a number of measures to reduce moose-vehicle collisions, including more “moose-crossing” signs, roadside reflectors to help drivers see moose and reducing the moose density in Aroostook County, where collisions occur most frequently.

Joe Lawlor can be contacted at 791-6376 or at:

jlawlor@pressherald.com

Twitter: joelawlorph

David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com