A motorcyclist riding on Highway 417 in Ottawa was thrown from the bike after it cleaved through and killed a deer running across the highway.

An off-duty paramedic said the collision happened just before 6 a.m. ET Thursday in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Boundary Road, in the rural southeast of Ottawa.

The collision "literally split the deer in half," through its midsection, said Ottawa paramedic Ian Courville, who witnessed the grisly crash while travelling to work.

"I saw a bunch of cars hitting the brakes in front of me and then kind of a cloud of what appeared to be red in front of me," said Courville.

"Then I saw the bike there skidding across the fast lane and the guy, the motorcyclist was lying on the right side of the road there and I obviously saw the deer and saw what happened."​

"The deer didn't suffer much. He was split in half so he died instantly, I'm assuming," he said.

Deer hit in 'soft spot'

Courville pulled over along with other drivers to help the motorcylist, while others who had reflective safety vests in their vehicles directed traffic away from the collision and the body of the deer.

The 46-year-old motorcyclist ended up some 45 metres from the site of the collision, while the bike was another 45 metres down the road, said Courville.

The motorcyclist was alert as he was taken to the trauma centre of the Civic campus of the Ottawa hospital with non-life-threatening leg injuries.

Courville said the motorcycle hit the deer right at the end of the deer's ribcage and before the hip bones and the back legs.

"It's probably what saved him: the point of impact was at the soft spot of the deer," he said. "He was very lucky. It could have been a moose going across."