Roadkill?

[Sasquatch]

Discretion: I'm talking about animals dead on the road, here. If you don't like that ... sorry. I'll try not to be graphic, but still, it's not exactly fluffy bunnies. ... Well, not fluffy, anyway.

Well, I hit a deer tonight. I was on my way back from taking somebody back to near Milwaukee, WI (I live in Marshfield, WI ... close to the center, whereas Milwaukee is prettymuch the bottom-right-hand corner), and the weather here sucks. It got warm enough to melt quite a bit of snow, but it also rained, and it was foggier'n hell. I mean, at some points, I couldn't see 100 feet ahead of me. So it was a long, slow drive (stupid people on the roads ... ), but I was about twenty minutes from home when ... Well, I hit a deer. A small doe. (A deer. A female deer.) It walked out from the left side of the road, and I slowed way down and kinda veered to the right, but she decided she wanted to trot into the middle of my lane, and the only way to avoid it would have been to drive into the ditch. So ... I hit a deer.

The bad things are that, obviously, the deer is not in good shape, after being hit with my truck. And I need a new sidelight. (The turn signal, parking light, and part of the headlight are on the corner of my truck, not all contained facing forward.)

The good things are that she took it in the head, which meant not much pain for her. And it didn't do much damage to my truck. And, even though it wasn't a huge deer, if somebody else hit it, or if I hadn't been paying attention, it could have caused a lot more damage, not just to the vehicle, but to the driver and passengers.

So, anyway. It was about a mile from a gas station, in the town I used to live in. So I checked out the damage, checked out the deer (yep, definitely dead), and drove back. I asked the teenage girl behind the counter if she had the number for the DOT or DNR or whoever I needed to call (DOT = Department Of Transportation, DNR = Department of Natural Resources), and she had no clue. But there was a local cop outside filling up his cruiser, so I asked him, and he said that prettymuch all I had to do was let them know. So there, job done.

So far, this brings the total number of of animals I have unintentionally hit with a vehicle in the United States to ... two. Shortly after I graduated high school, I hit a fox. But the thing had a death wish anyway -- I tried to avoid it about four times, and it followed my tire path. But it didn't really do any damage, either.

So ... anyway. That's my story. I feel bad about Christine ... but hey, I suppose it happens.

So what are your stories? Have you ever hit anything? Big? Small? Serious? Let's hear it.

[ChloChloAriadne]

Any other Queenslanders will know this...

Around here, we are encouraged to kill cane toads. This means people swerving to kill the things instead of trying to miss them like normal people do =/. Poor toadies. Not their fault some idiot introduced them to Australia.

We unfortunately have alot of wildlife in this area, and among the seas of dead toads that line the gutters [Ew, ew, I know.] we get the occasional bandicoot or snake or sometimes even [=(..] kangaroos.

[Violet]

Well, I myself never hit an animal with my car, but I remember one time when my dad was driving to the hotel we were all staying at, a German Shepard dog bounded out in the center of the busy road in front of us(down a crosswalk) when the lanes were moving fast, of course. We were in a van, and we hit the dog really hard and it did several somersaults in the air. Me and the rest of my family in the car were obviously upset, but my dad sped on to his destination without stopping to see if the animal was ok. I have no idea if the animal survived, but it wasn't there the next day. If it were me, I would've stopped. The people behind us did..

[Pete]

I've only hit one of the hardest things to hit... pigeons.

I was driving back from something during the day, in a moderately urban area. In between two factories, there was a huge puddle with tons of pigeons just chillin and being stupid. I didn't want to hit them, so I slow down and honk. The area was dead enough so I didn't have to worry about even stopping. I honk once more and most of them scatter, then I go about doing my 30-35. Just as the last of them finally start to scatter, I wind up hitting 3. Two off the grill, which definitely died on impact and one that hit off the metal right next to my windshield. It popped up into the air and actually started to fly after me for a few seconds, until it plopped into the ground. If pigeons weren't so grimey, I might have felt bad, but seeing this one bird chase me while looking completely drunk was way too funny.

I've also almost hit a few deer (some of them are HUGE!) and I'm sure I squashed a frog or two in my time. Nothing more substantial than that though.

[Furore]

Any other Queenslanders will know this...

Around here, we are encouraged to kill cane toads. This means people swerving to kill the things instead of trying to miss them like normal people do =/. Poor toadies. Not their fault some idiot introduced them to Australia.

We unfortunately have alot of wildlife in this area, and among the seas of dead toads that line the gutters [Ew, ew, I know.] we get the occasional bandicoot or snake or sometimes even [=(..] kangaroos.

That's what I love about the NSW/QL border...
Bring your baseball bats, hockey sticks, cricket bats, tennis rackets, long pieces of pipes and most importantly..... your golf clubs, and play the wonderful sport of toad bordering. If you're batting for NSW you try to kill them or at least send them well into QL, if you're batting for QL basically the same thing only into NSW. Whatever the case, most seem to die anyways so it's all good.

Barbaric some of you might be thinking? Well, not really. The toads eat smaller native creatures and can grow in plague numbers due to anything capable of eating them dieing from their poison. And they do tend to die very quickly. Mostly.

[pulse]

Well no, I've never hit an animal with my car; but just 20 minutes ago my new pet fish died, somehow the tiny fish got stuck onto the filter and I'm assuming he just couldn't breathe. So I feel fairly guilty, I don't know how long he was on there for and I only got him today, I'm regretting naming him so soon, I feel a little too attached.

Near here people hit Kangaroos all the time, for some reason they jump out in front of cars very often, not sure why, but they can be very big which can cause some pretty bad accidents.

[Chez Daja]

Hah, you guys hit the most exotic of animals... Except Pete, maybe.

My mother ran over a cat a few years ago. Poor thing had climbed into a ridge under her car, she hadn't known it was there, flew out of the car and got squidged. Sad...

I don't think we've hit anything else.

Almost hit a guy once. Stupid idiot was at the side of the road, standing still. Thought he was leting us out. Drove forward, stupid ****head decided to walk out. I felt sick from abrupt stopping.

I'm pretty sure we've all had more "almost-hits", but that's all I can think of for now.

[Neo Necron]

I've only hit one of the hardest things to hit... pigeons.

In england pigeons seem to be really stupid. I've never killed one or known anybody who has, but I could swear pigeons are trying to die. When I was learning to drive, I was approaching one which was stood dead in the centre of the road. It wouldn't move until I was basically right infront of it, and then it suddenly flew away. If I hadn't slowed down, it would most certainly have been an ex-pigeon.
Also, quite a few times I've notice as birds fly over roads sometimes they seem to sort of fly down, closer to the road and level with the windscreen, nearly getting hit but not quite.

My friend once hit a pheasant, though it's possible it survived. The pheasant saw my friend coming and actually managed to jump onto the bonnet of his car, and run up the windscreen as my friend drove on. What happened when it hit the roof I can only guess... but thinking about it, it probably did die.

Birds. What a bunch of feathered retards.

[Dragoon_Nick]

That's what I love about the NSW/QL border...
Bring your baseball bats, hockey sticks, cricket bats, tennis rackets, long pieces of pipes and most importantly..... your golf clubs, and play the wonderful sport of toad bordering. If you're batting for NSW you try to kill them or at least send them well into QL, if you're batting for QL basically the same thing only into NSW. Whatever the case, most seem to die anyways so it's all good.

Barbaric some of you might be thinking? Well, not really. The toads eat smaller native creatures and can grow in plague numbers due to anything capable of eating them dieing from their poison. And they do tend to die very quickly. Mostly.

OMFG, how fun does that sound? Play with golf clubs man! How far could one actually send them?

As for myself, can't say i hit any animals during roadkill. My aunt did though, a couple of cats actually, over some time. Apparently, cats here think its smart to sleep under cars during the winter, of course, right next to the wheels. Problem is, when people actually use their cars, they start by having one tired do a bump sound.

Sad..

[Walter Sobchak]

About six months ago, I hit something. It was big, so it could be a variety of things. I didn't check to see what it was in fear that it might be human.

It was three in the morning, and I was driving to pick up someone. I was going down US-1 (road that follows the east coast of Florida) and it was foggy and the road was under construction. Going 60, you don't have time to stop.

There was a little damage to the front, but nothing too bad.

[OceanEyes28]

Birds. What a bunch of feathered retards.

Ahahaha... thank you for brightening my day.

I hit a bunny once. I was getting on the freeway at night going about 55 at that point. Silly thing ran into my wheel. Like he did it on purpose. I was so upset, though. I criiiiiied and cried. Looking back, I was pretty ridiculous, but I would probably cry again if it happened again. Daniel was in the car with me and had to calm me down so I could keep driving. Kept telling me I did the bunny race a favor by killing Hitler Bunny.

That's all for me, really. My brother hit a deer a few weeks ago. He was on the lane closest to the woods and apparently, this thing ran out into his car before he could brake and did flips in the air before landing on the other side of the road. It happened because he wanted to take a back road to avoid Christmas traffic because (and this is the best part) he didn't want to risk having a wreck. Har.

[Sasquatch]

Pete, you're awesome. As stupid as those things are, it's incredibly difficult to hit them. Though it is pretty fun driving into a flock of them and watching them all fly away.

Neo Necron -- I've actually driven over a pigeon before. I thought it would fly away before I got to it (and was afraid it would try to fly away right before I got to it and end up smashed against the grill), but I didn't see it, and when I looked back, I saw the thing roll a few times (because of the wind caused by my truck driving three inches from its head at nearly seventy miles an hour) and finally fly away. I was shocked that the damn thing actually stood there and waited for me to go over it before it moved.

Turkeys suck like that, too. They usually start flying right before they're hit, and end up going through windshields.

Q: Why do you never see crows dead on the road?
A: Because there's always another one in the trees yelling, "Caw! Caw!"

[MoonStone]

"Turkeys suck like that, too. They usually start flying right before they're hit, and end up going through windshields."

is trhere like a youtube vid where i could see something like that?, i'v heard of this kinda crap but never seen proof of it

[Sasquatch]

This it the closest thing I found to that, after a brief search. But I've seen much worse -- it's well known in areas with a high population of wild turkeys that they like to fly right up into a windshield instead of just staying on the road. I guess they figure hey, if I'm going down, I'm gonna do some damage.

This is a good one too, though.

[Meier Link]

i was doing about 50MPH down a back road when i had a deer run out in front of my truck <85 GMC seirra classic with a busted passenger rear break drum> i hit the breaks and missed the deer but lost controal, over corrected and lost controal again!!! my truck made a "s" shape skid mark off the road. Some how i managed to hit my drivers side rear tire on a culvert and rip it off (fun stuff huh) when i came to a stop and regained conciesness i ran to all the surrounding houses trying to get help, no one would open their doors because it was like 2a.m. Apon realizing that i ran the mile and a half home. when i got there my mom freaked out and asked me why i stunk like $#*% so i told her what happened and we went back to try and fix my truck (at the time i didnt even realize i stunk) when we got to the accident scene i jacked up my truck to find a SKUNK splattered across the underbelly of my truck and thats why i was stinking!!!!! SIACK

[Ayse]

I don't think I've ever been in an situation where we've hit anything, but we do come close to hitting a few pigeons. It's like a game to them, see who can come the closest to being killed by a car.

I have seen a car almost hit my cat, and it was a really distressing thing to see cause my cat was shaking with fear and it's just not at all a nice feeling.

I've also met a man that had hit a woman by accident once, but I don't think that counts.

[Momo Mastermind]

I'm a safe driver, and an accident hasn't happened to me yet [knock on wood] so until an unavoidable animal crosses my path, I'm pretty much safe.

However.

My neighbor... a complete and utter idiot... hit a child... comming off of the bus, after school. It's REALLY funny, yet at the same time it's extremely upsetting as well. The child didn't die, but her license was taken away for quite some time. She deserved it though- she didn't abide by the rules of school busses and drove around it instead of stopping. The kid deserved it in some respect as well because they give strict rules to cross in FRONT of the bus but he decided to go around the back of it.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. My neighbor hit the child... not me...

-cough-

[Yuki-onna]

Alright...it may be a little traumatizing to hear....sigh.

One day, I was pulling out of the sideroad onto the main, and there it was. This beautiful creation of nature, vibrant in youth and life, only following it's instincts, and as I pulled out it unsuspectingly flew right into the front of my vehicle...I...I just couldn't brake or swerve in time. There was no one else in the road, but even if there had been, it was no use. The poor creature fell victim to my motor vehicle, it's life snuffed out in an instant while it was only trying to live its life. And there I was, driving, just trying to get a days pay so I could put food on the table.

When it was over with, I sat for a moment contemplating this. I got out, took the remains, and laid them by the side of the road. There was no damage to my truck, but the damage to my heart will always remain.







****ing butterflies.



Otherwise, I've only had some close calls so far. I live out in the country, a lot of sideroads where a lot of wildlife is. Deer, raccoons, possums, squirrels, rabbits...I see them on the side of the road all the time...poor buggers. If no one else is on the road, I always kinda mosey because of this. One day I know I'm just gonna smoke a deer and it's going to kill me.

[Phantom]

Now I did'nt really get into any of the situtions that you guys were in but, this was a couple days ago, I was on the trolley headed to my evening classes when the trolley had to stop to pick someone up I saw....excuse me for being a slight bit graphic but I saw a dead cat in one of the trolley tracks with its head served completely. It's whole body was covered in blood and I guess its fat and its intestines. It was gross, but I couldn't help but tear up alittle. I've seen dead cats before but that one took the cake. When I got home that night I had to really pet and pick up my 2 cats and I was glad that they aren't out there in the streets and are safe here at home. That poor cat, nice color fur too, and don't get me started on those dead roadkill rats >_<' talk about gross.

[GypsyElder]

I've never hit anything before, but if I did I would feel horrible. I remember not to long ago, I was driving down the freeway at night, going home. There was a pack of coyotes that randomly decided to run across the freeway. There was at least four of them from what I can remember. Two of them got hit.....really bad, it wasn't pretty. Everyone was swerving out of the way. They weren't little either.

What's sad is that Animal patrol doesn't really bother to remove dead animals off the streets. I called once, because there was this pretty big dog laying on the sidewalk that someone just moved over, right next to the school. They said that their first priority is living animals, which makes sense. But by the time they get around to cleaning it up, there's nothing left, because it's stuck on some ones tires or just impossible to pick up anymore.

[Pete]

I recently ran over a dead deer. It was previously hit by something, and was clearly down for the count, halfway into the road. Unfortunately for me, there was some serious construction going on and I had absolutely no way of swerving to avoid it. It was either hit a tree, or hit a construction barricade wall. I had some blood spatter that kicked up on my fender, and something in my tire.

Nothing a good powerwashing didn't fix.

[Dodie16]

When I lived in Oklahoma, I would see all kinds of dead animals on the road. Most usually it would be a possum or a squirrel, but there once was a coyote that got hit by a car and died. Now that I moved to Arkansas, I really don't see that much roadkill. At least not as much as when I was an Oklahoma resident.

As for me, I definately try to be a careful driver, but there was one time I ran over a turtle.... I felt so bad for it! I honestly didn't see it until it was too late, and then there was nothing I could do about it.

I do have sort of a sad story in relation to the topic. I was driving to class one day, and on my way I saw a cat. He/she had been hit by a car (I assume because it was near the road. I didn't actually see it get hit), but it didn't die. It was jerking and twitching all over the place, and I could just see how much pain it was in. I felt really sorry for the poor thing, but I knew that there really was nothing I could do for it, so I kept driving. I felt guilty about just leaving it like that. I still do, because what if I could have saved it by taking it to the vet? Poor thing...

[GypsyElder]

I do have sort of a sad story in relation to the topic. I was driving to class one day, and on my way I saw a cat. He/she had been hit by a car (I assume because it was near the road. I didn't actually see it get hit), but it didn't die. It was jerking and twitching all over the place, and I could just see how much pain it was in. I felt really sorry for the poor thing, but I knew that there really was nothing I could do for it, so I kept driving. I felt guilty about just leaving it like that. I still do, because what if I could have saved it by taking it to the vet? Poor thing...

I've seen a cat get hit before, it was so sad. It was an SUV, the cat was sitting on the side of the road, it was just fine, not in the street or anything. As soon as it heard the SUV coming it panicked and ran across, going under the car. I didn't see it for a while so I though it made it, but I guess the back tire must have got him. it was jerking and twitching like you described. The cat you saw must have just been hit.

[Zerobanshee]

I remember once coming home from school, driving along a familiar path, and out of nowhere, a bird flew up from the side of the road, flying in the same direction my car was going. It flew right in front of my car, and was flying at windshield level. Needless to say, it hit my car, flipped multiple times, and died upon impact.

I've also hit a squirrel, it ran right in front of my tire as I was driving to a friend's. I couldn't swerve out of the way, since there was a car in the opposite lane, and it was too late to brake.

I've had several near-misses with deer. Crazy lunatics, it seems like they really want to get hit. I've seen them standing near, and ON the road. >.>;

[Josh_R]

I hit a deer one time and not a small i'm talking ten point buck, after hitting it I got out of my truck to check the damage and the deer was laying there on the ground and looked like it was having a damn seizure...So I sped up nature and got my shotgun out of my truck and shot it...I took my truck into the shop and they told the deer had done some serious damage to the front and that it would cost about $600 to fix it up, so I offered the mechanic all the meat off of the deer that I hit. He accepted and fised my truck in exchange for a butt load of deer meat...
Another time I was riding my ATV at my uncle's farm, I was probably going 50-60 mph's and I hit a woodpecker...But alas it was not the only casualty of the event it put a hole in the front of my helmet, it crack it and know I can't see out of it...So now I have to go and buy a new helmet...

[Pete]

I do have sort of a sad story in relation to the topic. I was driving to class one day, and on my way I saw a cat. He/she had been hit by a car (I assume because it was near the road. I didn't actually see it get hit), but it didn't die. It was jerking and twitching all over the place, and I could just see how much pain it was in. I felt really sorry for the poor thing, but I knew that there really was nothing I could do for it, so I kept driving. I felt guilty about just leaving it like that. I still do, because what if I could have saved it by taking it to the vet? Poor thing...

This totally reminds me of when I was driving up in the backwoods upstate, around 1am. A deer got hit by something in the middle of the road, and as I drove past it, it looked up at me. I really didn't know what to do, but it was definitely in bad shape. I called the police, since the deer was a big one, taking up both lanes. They came in about 5 mins, and the one cop asked me if I wanted it for a trophy. I said no, and he pulled out his gun and shot it in the head. He told me that it's not worth it to try and save them when they get hit like that, since they'll probably just go out and do it again, and the best thing is just to put them out of their misery.

[Dr_Flea]

Ive never hit anything yet thank god!!!

But my mate has hit a small fluffy whit dog before it ran right in front of us and we were on a busy road in the middle of peak hour traffic so we couldn't really stop.

And the other the same mate came up to me and goes:

What goes "poooooof" when you hit it at 150 k/ph? A bird!!

my mate has a nice Toyota Soarer and was crusin some back country roads when he hit the bird. there was feathers and guts everywhere!! my mate was pissed cause he'd only cleaned his car the day before!!!

~Dr_Flea~