BS: Hitting an animal with your car

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rowan
Date: 23 May 09 - 02:34 AM

Lox, my father built roads in outback South Australia and told me of how a car he was following slowed to avoid hitting a Plains Red kangaroo; these are quite large (can stand 6'). It cannoned into the passenger side of the car and came through the side window; the driver just baled out without even stopping, as the kangaroo then panicked and leapt about with great strength inside the car trying to escape. There wasn't a straight panel left on the car, which was a write-off, even though it hadn't hit anything before it came to a stop off the road.

Kangaroos can be a bit of a problem.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lox
Date: 22 May 09 - 08:16 PM

A friend of mine told me a story recently.

He was driving back from the country to the city when he hit a deer and nearly killed it.

Next, he stopped the car, opened the door and pushed the deer out.




ta daaa ...

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: topical tom
Date: 22 May 09 - 01:37 PM

Those who live in deer country are probably aware of deer whistles. They come in pairs and one is attached to each front side of the vehicle. They are supposed to emit a sound which repels deer. Some swear by them and it appears to me that deer may be on the side of the road but will not cross. Having said this, a large doe crossed the road in front of our car the other night but, in fairness, we had slowed and stopped the car when this happened. The whistles would have been rendered useless. Anyway, they are inexpensive and it can't hurt to install them on a car.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Wesley S
Date: 22 May 09 - 01:06 PM

I can only imagine how awful it would be to hit another person - even a child - with your car. I'd probably just walk or ride the bus after that.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: topical tom
Date: 22 May 09 - 12:45 PM

Wesley S: The very same happened to me. I know what you're going through but we can only hope that the dog was very slightly injured.
My wife and I once hit and killed a young deer, perhaps one year old, and killed it instantly. We were fortunately unhurt. These episodes are always unnerving and stay in one's memory forever. Just remember that it WAS an accident and you acted as you had to.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 21 May 09 - 12:48 PM

The worst driver I have ever known is a doctor, who spent some time practicing in rural East Africa. He acquired the nickname "the doctor who brings meat" from the number of times he managed to hit something edible (usually an antelope) when out doing house calls - he'd out the roadkill on the roofrack. Once he got an impala, enough to feed a whole village.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: meself
Date: 21 May 09 - 10:56 AM

Now I know a few people for whom that would not be an unreasonable speculation, but no animals ...

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Neil D
Date: 21 May 09 - 01:43 AM

While riding with a friend of mine one night a skunk amble into our path. My friend tried valiently to lock it up in time, but alas we felt the bump as our tire ran over the poor creature. it must have been the shock of the moment, because my fairky intelligent friend then said something that we have NEVER let her live down... " Maybe I just ran over it's head and it wil be ok..." She didn't, it was not.

                                     Christina

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rowan
Date: 20 May 09 - 07:19 PM

As JennieG says, avoid wombats at all cost. I've commented elsewhere on one that was hit by a Landrover and ended up under the back diff. The vehicle had to be jacked to lift it clear of the wombat, which promptly ran into the bush; the diff was cracked.

As it happens, I pick up my nice "new" Subaru from the panel beaters today. Two months after I got it I was going to SES training and going gently past the local TSR (Travelling Stock Reserve; a place where stock may be rested overnight in a piece of fenced bush) where, because I had seen the occasional kangaroo, I had kept to a moderate pace. This meant that. whe said macropod jumped into my path from behind some shrubs (kangaroos are notorious for changing direction randomly, often right into the path of danger) I slammed the brakes on (ABS is wonderful), which gave it enough time to aim itself right at my headlight. It scored, right at the junction of the maximum number of panels, roughly $5k worth.

I checked it (being a founder of the local WIRES group I always check marsupial "roadkill" that looks recent, as you can often recover young from a dead mother's pouch and hand raise it; it's also a good move to remove the animal from the road so that scavengers (eagles, crows and quadripeds) that arrive aren't also at risk of becoming roadkill.

Never a welcome moment, and the worst one I came across was a Big Red on the Stuart Highway, some hundreds of km from anywhere, let alone known WIRES volunteers. It had been killed during the night but had a joey young enough to be attached to the teat (meaning I'd have to have the special milk formula for that species at that stage of development) still trying to get whatever life was left from Mum. Putting it out of its misery with a tyre lever was the only way, but I had to wait until a passing coach full of tourists was out of sight.

Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: JennieG
Date: 20 May 09 - 08:33 AM

A few years ago, in the wee small hours coming home after a gig a few hours away, my son hit a wombat. Now any Ozzie knows hitting a wombat is like hitting a rock. The score was wombat 1, Stephen's little blue car nil, and $1500 worth of damage.

To the car, not the wombat.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 20 May 09 - 03:56 AM

Hi Tam, it took over 12 months to get to court and to be honest we just couldn't face dragging the whole thing up again, but it made the local press and I still see people who knew of the accident or were caught up in the traffic tailbacks.

Its a busy road through our village and the Police closed the road both ways for most of the day. So at least more people were made aware of how carefully you need to drive around horses.

The village hall committee planted daffodils on the grass verge where the accident happened and they are a permanent reminder.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 May 09 - 02:53 AM

Green Wellies - How sad for your poor Sixpence and for you. Why coulnd't you sue that driver for the cost of your horse. If he was already guilty of driving without due care, another more expensive lesson may have really taught him and perhaps his heartless wife something about respect of others on public roads.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Peace
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:59 AM

Get permission from the necessary authorities to put in a few speed bumps.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:55 AM

Hey Green Wellies. Thanks for explaining, and fair comment.

As for cars speeding through the village, yes we know all about that one too. We have village lanes without footpaths, thus pedestrians walking on the roads. Lots of horses on the lanes, especially at weekends. Dog walkers. Families with children on bicycles. Ramblers groups coming through pretty often too. Children dismounting school buses. And so on. And then of course the speeding cars using the village as a convenient shortcut between the two towns which bookend it... and completely disregarding other more vulnerable road users. The rights and wellbeing of any village community in my view should take precedence over vehicles traveling through. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Janie
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:05 AM

I've had many way too close calls with deer, but fortunately, have only actually hit one. Clipped it's head with the front edge of the car when it darted out onto the road. It killed the deer outright. We loaded it into the trunk and took it home and butchered it since the only body damage was to the head.



A few weeks ago, my son and I saw a deer down right on the edge of the road late in the evening. Still alive but unable to get up. We had nothing in the car with which to dispatch it, so I called 911 and asked for Animal Control. Within 15 minutes, an animal control officer was there to put the deer out of it's misery.

A number of years ago I hit a Barred Owl that was gliding just at the height of the roof of my car. I stopped. It had a broken wing and scooted into the brush across the drainage ditch when I approached it. This was before the days of cell phones. I noted the place and then drove about 6 miles on to the first convenience store, which also happened to be a game checking station, so they had the number for the game warden. They called the game warden for me, and I drove back to the place where the owl had entered the brush and waited for him. He met me there 30 minutes later, captured the owl, and took it to a bird rehabilitator.

True story, with a little humor.

While driving along a country road some 35-40 years ago, I encountered a number of chickens. I hit the brakes and honked my horn and they scattered to either berm of the road. I had slowed to under 15 mph and had almost made it through the flock when one white hen darted out in front of my VW Beetle. I heard the thump, and looking into my rearview mirror, saw, with considerable consternation, the hen flopping about in the middle of the road.   On my right was an old farmhouse down a relatively short driveway. I pulled into the drive and got out of the car. As I approached the house an elderly woman in a cotton housedress stepped out onto the front porch. I told her I had just hit what I supposed was one of her chickens up on the road, that it was flopping about, and I didn't know if it was dead or not.

"That's too bad, honey," she replied, absolutely serious. "But has told and told them chickens to stay out of the road, and they just won't listen. It ain't your fault."

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Peace
Date: 20 May 09 - 12:07 AM

I hit one of these many years back.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: meself
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:45 PM

"meself, why were you going 60 mph on ice?"

Good question, and I'm not-so-glad you brought it up. However, the specific time in question, I was the passenger - but it could as easily have been me driving. Sometimes you just aren't aware how icy the road is until you touch the brakes. Sometimes you set out on a warm late-winter/early-spring afternoon and four hours later and a couple of hundred miles further north, you don't realize how much the road conditions have changed. But experience can be a good teacher - if you survive experience.

I had a few close calls with moose and icy roads over my years in the north, but through good luck and, I like to think, a measure of cool-headedness - never slammed the brakes or jerked the steering wheel - no humans or animals were injured.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:08 PM

Crow Sister - yep it does sound a bit odd, I should explain, we were a good few miles from our village, a November evening dark and raining, with no torch - the badger had made off into a very big field. That being enough, even if we could have found it - a fit badger is a formidable opponent, but an injured one ! Maybe we should have taken a look, but we didnt. Whats done is done.

However, on the other side of the coin 3 years ago one of my horses was hit by a car. The car overtook me on my horse and pulled in between me and the horse in front to let another car coming towards us go past. The driver who had overtaken me was so busy checking in his rear view mirror that he drove straight into the back of the horse in front of him.
My beautiful horse Sixpence was sent head over heals down the road, luckily the rider was thrown clear. That was at 10.30am at 3.30pm that afternoon,after doing all they could, the vets put her to sleep at the side of the road, and the police openend the roads again.

The driver was fined £250.00 and 3 points on his licence for driving without due care and attention. And his wife told me I should think myself lucky because I shouldnt have been on the road in the first place!

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:16 PM

Well, that explains why nobody got their Easter Baskets that year, D.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Donuel
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:50 PM

I once hit a bunny on the NYS Thruway at 1 AM Easter day.

I felt bad but still in my defense, there were no bunny crossing signs

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 19 May 09 - 12:09 PM

Driving at night in Colorado, your chances of hitting a deer or elk are pretty high. If you are in a thickly wooded area with a stream that parallels the road (which is almost anywhere in the mountains), you can often see the eyes of numerous deer just off the shoulder. Aside from the trauma of injuring the animal, there is a very real chance of being killed or injured yourself in such a collision with a 200-600 pound animal.
CAUTION; STOP READING HERE IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION!
OK. This is an episode that is vivid in my memory. I was living in the mountains above Denver, the Foothills as we call them, and I was driving down a very busy two-lane road at rush hour just north of Morrison. I suddenly saw ahead of me what seemed at first glance to be a statue of a deer that had tumbled out of someone's pickup truck bed. It was perfectly rigid, and tumbled to the side of the road. As I approached, I saw that it was in fact a large doe that lay on the shoulder, bleeding from mouth and nose and quivering in spasms. I pulled over, watching the animal struggle and not knowing what to do, when a big Ford truck pulled over behind me. The guy got out, and I asked if he had a gun to put the deer out of its misery. He said no, shook his head, went to his truck and returned with a large ball peen hammer. I will tell you that it took several blows to kill the deer.
I will also tell you that, as horrible as this sounds and despite the fact that I know I couldn't have done it, it was the right thing to do for the deer. But it is also something, like a bad dream, that I will never forget.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:50 AM

"it was all I could do to stop him going after the damn thing. "

I find that a most weird statement?
I'd insist that we check on any hit animal, and if necessary call out the RSPCA.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:42 AM

Returing home one dark evening a badger ambled (as only a badger can) along the side of the road next to our car. We were not travelling fast as it was one of the narrow lanes around the village where we live. For some unknown reason the badger decided to do a right and trotted straight into the car. There was a loud bang, my husband braked and the badger tumbled down the lane in front of us, he got to his paws trotted across the lane and into a field on the other side of the road.
My husband was gutted, he loves badgers and it was all I could do to stop him going after the damn thing. We was really up set and worried to that the thing would die a slow, lingering death.



Well that was until he saw the damage to the front spoiler and number plate of his brand new car. £500 worth of damage, and an insurance assessor who didnt believe a word of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 May 09 - 09:45 AM

I worked with a woman whose fiance went out of his way to run over critters on the road. She later divorced him and then remarried him. She told me once that during her honeymoon she'd caught him in a cornfield with another woman, but she forgave him.

I would have gotten out when I found him deliberately running over animals.

No, I've lost track of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: kendall
Date: 19 May 09 - 05:33 AM

Maybe Becca will tell us about the "Killer Volvo."

That school bus driver is one sick son of a bitch who should never be allowed to get near children again!

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: mouldy
Date: 19 May 09 - 05:29 AM

I only once deliberately ran over an animal - a rabbit - and I wasn't the first person to hit it. Its back end was flattened and stuck to the road, and it was desperately trying to run. So I ran over its head. I had 3 children in the car, one quite young, but they accepted why I had done it.

Last year I was with my (then) learner driver daughter, and she hit a pheasant as it took off in front of her car. She was mortified, as she had been determined never, ever to hit an animal.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Amergin
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:51 AM

about 12 years ago I was driving down a side street, watching for the neighbourhood children....so I didn't hit them....I was still fairly new to driving at that time....well a young mid sized dog ran out, in front of my tire...right in front of his family....including kids...i pulled over and cried as we watched the poor fellow puke up his insides...and die....it took a good 20 minutes...the owners were real nice about it...they knew it was an accident as they saw what happened....

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:46 AM

It was my wife's fault........we'd left the monthly folk night in Swanage at the end of March and normally we go back to my brother and his wife's house for a coffee. On this occasion my wife said she was tired so we just dropped them off and set out for home. If we'd gone in as usual......

Between Swanage and Corfe Castle, driving at the mandatory 40 mph a badger came out of the hedgerow about (at most) ten yards in front of be. I drove straight over it before I could brake and, as there was acar coming towards me, I couldn't swerve. It was a terrific bump but the car was still drivable. My wife said should we go back?, but as I pointed out, we weren't living in Wyoming and I didn't have a shot gun with me. The next morning I found that my lovely Alfa Romeo (156) had lost a large chunk of the nearside front bumper, along with one of its fog-lights. It still passed its MOT the following Monday. My brother told me that they'd seen the dead badger the next morning and that it was a pretty big one.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:14 AM

Strange, the way coincidence works.

Driving home last evening, a muntjac broke cover. I slowed, and then a grey squirrel darted across the road just as I put my foot down.

I didn't hit it, but the Great Mother alone knows how I didn't. Anguished cries of "Oh shit ! No !" rent the air.

The only creatures I have ever hit were a feral pigeon, and I wasn't arsed by that, and a moorhen, which committed suicide under my wheels.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:49 AM

We hit a cat on a motorway at about 80mph one night driving home from Les's legendary singarounds at the Beech in Chorlton. It did around £200 worth of damage to the front of the car - and ever since the neighbourhood cats hiss & raise their heckles at the sight of it... More things in heaven and earth? I shouldn't wonder.

Once a young neighbourhood girl of 11 knocked on my door saying that a neighbour's cat had just been hit by a car. I remember we sat together at the roadside as this noble creature lay dying. Emma asked if we should say prayer; being a storyteller I said it would be best to tell it a story - or rather tell young Emma a story who was pretty emotional. I told the King of the Cats, which I'm you'll all be familiar with (see HERE if you're not) and even as the light went out in Tim Toldrum's eyes (for it was he I'm sure) there came a distant cat howl that chills me to the marrow just to think of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 May 09 - 09:17 PM

Several years back, one of the guys in Montgomery-Gentry, the country music duo, was brought up on charges for killing a huge captive bear. The bear was a sort of pet for the guy that owned the "ranch" where the deed was done, and even had a name. The bear was put in a pen, where Gentry crouched safely in his tree house and shot it to death. Photos were taken of Gentry and his trophy bear. When the photos were published, by Gentry's own publicity people, the hunt was described as having taken place in the wilds in Alaska, in order to enhance the asshole's macho image. When the truth came out, both he and the "rancher" were charged with animal abuse, from which trial he escaped with a slap on the wrist.
To this day, I can't stomach the sight of the guy, or hear a Montgomery Gentry song without my gorge rising.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: jeddy
Date: 18 May 09 - 07:52 PM

i've only ever ran over a wild rabbit and was close to tears for the next couple of miles, i can't imagine the guilt and remorse for hitting a loved pet. some of your' stories are awful but i think you did the right thing! which would you prefer, killing an animal or killing yourself? i know that if our dogs got out and caused an accident iwould feel responible as well.
as for the killing of penned animals that's not hunting that my friends is butchery if you're going to hunt at least have enough respect for your' prey and do it in the wild where you have to have compasion respect and skill!
sorry for the rant, i read alot of wilbur smith books

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:17 PM

Oh my God VTam what a horrible story. What a sadistic bus driver.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:07 PM

What I hate is the bastards that hit animals on purpose.

When I was 6 years old, I was on school bus just taking off from stop near my house, beside me was the boy (Allie, also 6) from next door. We were in the front seat adjacent to the driver and could see the road in front of us. If we as short 6 year olds could see so could the driver.

The dog (less than a year old) belonging to Allie, decided to sit down in front of the bus as if to prevent the bus leaving with his owners (Allie's older brother was ont he bus as well my older brother). The bus driver made some comment about that dog better move. Allie was yelling, he is only a puppy. The dog didn't move, just sat there looking up at the approaching bus and that driver ran him over. I don;t think we were moving fast. There really wasn't room for the bus to have picked up any speed in that short space of time. But maybe the memory is in slow mo as such things often are.

(God I am just now realising how alarmingly like a certain recent event this is.)

Anyway, the driver stopped a few yards down the road. Everyone on the bus was crying or screaming. I even remember which neighbohood mom witnessed and shouted at the driver and took us off that bus.

Damn! I am going to have nightmares tonight.   Oh! no change there.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: kendall
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:02 PM

meself, why were you going 60 mph on ice?

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:50 PM

Shoot a penned elk? Sick. They should sign them up and throw them in the pen.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:41 PM

Joe, that WAS stupid. We always find a lay by and if it's too close to traffic use the damn leads! That's what they are FOR!

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Joe_F
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:28 PM

There is a song about a man who made a sport of running over animals until at last a hippopotamus ran over him. Just as well it is not in the DigiTrad.

*

Once I was on (I think it was) the New York Thruway, moderate traffic, moving at speed. A car was parked on the shoulder, and the people had gotten out & *let their dog out*. It ran out onto the highway, and I saw it go up in the sky in two big pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:24 PM

"Nice antelope, there, Tex!"
"Thankee!"
"Where'd you get him and with what?"
"Up on Green River. Used a Browning bolt-action 30 ought six with a scope, Remington steel core ammo. One shot at 'bout 300 yards. Where'd you get yours?"
"I-25, right before the Chugwater exit. 1990 Toyota Fourrunner, custom 'Cattlegate' Bumper. Point blank range. Field-dressed him right in front of the Amoco Station."

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:20 PM

There's a place around HERE where you can shoot penned elk for a price. A couple years ago some got out; Fish & Game ordered them shot after the owner couldn't get them back in the pen (F&G was concerned with brucellosis). So the owner sued and lost, ran last year for the US Senate and lost, and has announced he's running for governor.

Me, I don't like the idea of shooting penned animals. If you're going to hunt, hunt. But don't shoot a penned animal and brag about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:59 PM

It is very disconcerting. Glad you went back to check on the dog... some wouldn't.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Bill D
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:37 PM

Gee, Leej..I think there's still a place in Texas where they 'stock' their ranch with various game for guys with big guns and big $$$$ to 'hunt'. (I think they might even guarantee you a kill.)

.....it being Texas, they might give lessons in 'stalking by Honda or Hummer', too.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:26 PM

Oh, sorry, I thought this was going to be a "How To" thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: meself
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:25 PM

There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when you're skidding on ice toward a moose at 60 or 70 mph, and you're wondering if he'll do the decent thing and get out of your way ...

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:11 PM

My late friend Bob and I were out cruising country roads on summer night when he it a fox. The poor thing crawled into the ditch, it's back broken. Bob stopped and shot it with a .38 we had in car (do NOT ask!). He then picked it up and took it home and gave it a decent burial. Bob was broken up about it for some time.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:03 PM

I've never hit a dog, but I hit a coyote one morning about 3 AM on a deserted west Oklahoma highway. Took out the right front headlight and the coyote. Scared the HOLY CRAP out of me, but at least the coyote was already dead because I had no way to finish it off.

Mr hit a deer one night coming home from Cheyenne. At least we were in a big honkin' pick up and were lucky. Nobody hurt but the deer.

A local teacher wasn't so lucky. Her husband was driving, (smallish car), hit the deer which went thru the windshield and killed his wife. Antlers are not good for human chests.

Let's be CAREFUL out there.

(hitting skunks, even re hitting skunks is no fun at all)

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: kendall
Date: 18 May 09 - 02:57 PM

Wesley, if the dog ran off it was probably injured but not seriously.
Sounds like you had no choice so stop beating yourself up.

When I first started driving I was driving a friend's car and there were two children playing on the right side shoulder. I cant seem to recall now just how it happened but I ended up hitting the dog instead of the kids. Their grandmother was some upset that I hit the damn dog!

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 May 09 - 02:26 PM

Oh what a horrible feeling. I hit a dog once but it was in a subdivision, I wasn't going fast and the dog ran off - I believe he was bruised but I think he was probably okay. A couple of years ago I was driving on a country road when a dog ran out and was hit by a car going fast - the dog was thrown to the side of the road. The car didn't stop. I did, and watched helplessly as the dog died. There weren't any nearby houses so I finally left, there was nothing more I could do. I agree that a dog can run off even from the most careful owners. Leashes break, collars slip, some dogs are diggers and escape artists - they bolt out when you open the front door... My Missie would run off given half a chance and she had no concept of the dangers posed by a car. We always managed to get her back, but I shudder to think of what could have happened...

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: frogprince
Date: 18 May 09 - 12:30 PM

Wesley, are you okay with a hug from another old coot? Just be glad you didn't do the wrong thing, reflexively, and wind up with a tragedy. As already noted, no way to know if there was negligence on the part of the dog's owner, or if it was just a sad thing that happened for all concerned.
I was driving home through uptown in Chicago at night and hit an ominous large, soft bump. A small dog had run in front of the car so close I didn't even see him. I got pulled over just in time to see him die. The area was solid with apartment buildings, and generally considered one of the meanest areas in town; I just couldn't see that it was realistic to try to track down an owner.
25 years ago. I'm not going around haunted by it, but it's still a miserable memory if something brings it up.
                     Dean

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Bill D
Date: 18 May 09 - 12:02 PM

It is sad to hit any animal, but it is worse to have a serious accident trying to avoid it....which nearly happened to me.

Many years ago...(35? wow)...I was asked to drive a friend who had vision problems to an appointment about 150 miles away, using his car...a VW Beetle.
   One the way home, after dark, we were buzzing happily along, singing & joking, when an opossum ran from the right side of the road toward the left. My friend, even with one eye bandaged, saw it about the same time I did.....and grabbed the steering wheel! Not only did we hit the 'possum, but the little car swerved violently to the right, then the left, as I tried to compensate for it all.
Fortunately, after another smaller swerve to the right, I managed to get it back in my lane and decided it was okay to breath again.
I don't suppose the whole thing actually took more than 4 seconds, but it was one of those slow-motion '27 thoughts about many things' moments.
After I calmed down, I suggested to Tony that the driver might best be left to deal with such incidents in the future. He...ummm... agreed.

So....there is a big difference between a possum, or a dog--- and something like a deer. It is a good idea to tell yourself in advance, hoping you never have to decide, what you should do.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:54 AM

A hard thing to deal with, especially with a child in the car. I hope the little boy is OK.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: mouldy
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:53 AM

We had an experience a few years ago when a small dog shot out of an entrance and down the pavement, followed by a collie which arced round after it, and swung straight under the wheels of out car. It died about 5 minutes later. I had the job of explaining to the elderly couple it belonged to what had happened. It was the last thing they needed, as they had recently found out that their daughter had terminal cancer. I'm a dog owner, and it cut very deep. The small dog had wandered up from a nearby farm, and the older dog was just seeing it off. It was a quietish road, and it just happened that we were on it.

Last week my daughter's cat was killed on the small housing estate where she lives, early in the morning, just after she let him out.
It looks like he had been lying in the gutter, which he sometimes did on sunny mornings. Somebody ran over his head. Let's just say that her husband said she hadn't to see him, and he had to get the vet to check the microchip to set his own mind at rest that it WAS his cat, as there's a similar one on the same estate.

On a different note, years ago, my son drove down the back lane towards our village, and went through a flock of small birds. For years he had one spreadeagled on his radiator! We get a lot of rabbits on some of the lanes round here, and I have lost count of the times I've swerved trying to avoid them. Pheasants are hard to avoid sometimes too. One night I was nipping home the 3 miles from the pub I was at to fetch something for somebody. It was around this time of year, and was just dark. I thought I saw somebody's kitten on the road, until I saw there were 2, and they had little foxy faces. I had to sit parked in the middle of the road until they decided to move. They couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Janie
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:52 AM

Yes, I terrible feeling. I hit a dog that ran out in front of me in front of the child he belonged to.

About all one can do is stop. But stopping means alot. As a teenager I was out on a ride on my horse. Since I had to ride along the highway for an extended period, our dog had been put up, but apparently the door wasn't latched well and he followed me and caught up with me. He came running right up the middle of the highway and a car hit him, then kept on going. I was devestated and completely at a loss of what to do. There was no where safe to tie the horse and go to the dog, who was still alive and still in the road, and I couldn't handle the dog and the horse at the same time. Fortunately, a friend's father drove by very soon, stopped and gently picked up my dog to take him back to our house, where my parents were home.


I also lost a friend in graduate school who was killed when she swerved to miss a squirrel and lost control of her vehicle.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:50 AM

Out here it's cougar, deer, mule deer, elk, moose, cats, dogs, lynx, and even bear (I'm not including the smaller stuff like rattlesnakes and skunks).

If it's a choice between people and animals I'll hit the animal.

But I don't have to like it and I haven't.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:40 AM

Happened me a year or two ago, just as I was heading into a series of bad bends on what passes for a main road here in Ireland (just west of Ballinasloe, for those who know the area.). The rather large dog bounced off the front of the car and scarpered - apparently none the worse for wear. BUT - the impact caused an emergency cut-off in the fuel supply to kick in and the car wouldn't restart! There was no hard shoulder, just a rather uninviting ditch. Approaching traffic couldn't see me till the last second, due to the bends/hedgerows. On a hunch, I activated and reset the immobiliser system - and it worked! Car restarted and off I drove - no sign, good or bad, of the dog.

When I called into my garage to tell the tale, they laughed and said "Just as well it wasn't the previous model! With it, you'd have had to open the bonnet and find a switch buried in the guts of the engine!"

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:40 AM

The one I didn't like was when we came over a humpbacked bridge behind another car. He ran over the cat. We missed it. He drove off and we had the task of knocking on nearby doors saying "Does anyone own a black and white cat - the car in front of us did not stop".

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:33 AM

We had a similar experience a few years ago. My wife was driving when a dog ran out from behind some bushes. There was no time to do anything but hit the brakes, and we heard that sickening thump and realized the dog was hit. She pulled over and luckily we saw the dog running away. It ran into a neighboring yard so we ran the bell to tell the owner. The owner came out and we looked at the dog and hew as fine, but what got me upset was when the owner said that the dog always runs out. The guy lives on a very busy road, next to an exit ramp from a local highway.   

In my estimation, this guy is guilty of animal abuse. Sorry, but I feel the same way about people who let their cats roam free in urban and suburban areas. Domestication brings changes and the pet owner needs to take responsibility.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:29 AM

Folks who are squeamish about animals, beware this post.


Not all loose dogs have been "allowed" to run loose. Even the most careful owner sometimes finds themselves looking for a loose, wandered-off dog. Our Faulkner will never have the "opportunity" to enjoy the outdoors off-leash again, but his life is seriously affected by the measures we have had to take and even then I cannot guarantee I will never hear him "get it in the road" outside my front window..... what if this, and what iof thatm, and what if.... what if..... there are so many ways "foolproof" isn't actually guaranteeable.

One dog we had taken as a foster from a shelter, for instance, was a real escape artist. They didn't tell us. We're good, but we were always one move behind that dog's tricks, and he won that contest before we got it all figured out. We like to hope he found a better home that suited his needs, because we never found him (dead or alive).


Wes, you did right. Here in deer country, the first piece of wisdom we were taught when we moved here was HIT THE DEER. Always. They might just move off fast enough to avoid the hit, but slow down as much as you can and hold your wheels straight, or there will be two deaths-- you AND the deer. It's always upsetting but whaddayagonnado? The deer didn't get the memo that people were moving in.... here, they are as plentiful as the possums some areas see as roadkill every spring, or the raccoons. Roadkill Bambi is, unfortunately, more distressing to most people than Roadkill Possum, but it's the same thing-- wildlife and humans intersecting.

My horror story about hitting dogs is, one lost (our dear BJ) and one hit (I cannot even begin to say how awful THAT one was). For the one we hit, just try it this way-- you're rushing to an emergency you've been called to respond to, and you hit a dog along the way. Do you stop, or not? How to you weigh THAT? We felt a little like a train engineer must feel when a collision is unavoidable.


[BLUNTSPEAK OFF, legalspeak on]


The LEGAL picture in our area is that it is not illegal to have your cows loose on the road-- it's farmland protected by state law in that way and the burden of care is on the driver to watch for cows. But it is a CIVIL-court financial liability that any damage caused by a loose cow, including damage to a car in a collision, is hands-down on the cow owner. And it applies, here, to dogs as well, no matter how the dog got loose.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:25 AM

Me too, Wesley. I agree with olddude that a person apparently never forgets that moment. When an animal runs off, however, I prefer to believe that it ran away a much wiser creature, sore but wiser.

Subject: RE: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: olddude
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:21 AM

I am so so sorry, I think it has happened to many people and it breaks your heart but you had no choice. I have hit my share of wild life over the years and there is nothing a person can do to avoid it. Even the folks who owned the dog, as hard as a person tries a dog or a cat will run out sometimes. Not your fault and you made the right decision and I am sorry to hear you went through that

Subject: BS: Hitting an animal with your car
From: Wesley S
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:12 AM

This was a lousy experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It was about 4:00 last Saturday afternoon and I'm driving on a major road near my house. My wife and son are in the backseat – and I'm in the far right { the slow } lane of traffic. Out of the corner of my eye I see a medium sized dog running across the street – and I see I'm about to hit him. My choise are hit the dog, drive my family into a ditch or into the other lanes of traffic. I slam on the brakes as quickly as I can but I know I'm going to hit him. First I hear a yelp and a thump at the bumper – and then another thump at the back of the car. And then I see a flash of brown in my side mirror as the dog runs off the road and into an empty field.

I turned the car around as soon as I could but the dog was nowhere to be found. I can only guess – and hope – that I just rolled the dog under my car and he wasn't hurt very badly. We never saw the dog again. I hate the idea of someone loved family pet showing up at their door all batter and bruised and having to be put down. It just made me sick. I can still hear the thumps and the yelp. But later I started to feel the anger at someone who allows a dog to run free and wander into traffic. It wasn't just the dog that was endangered. Whole families get wiped out this way.

I can only hope for the best – for the dog – and feel that I did the best for my family under the circumstances. But it's still a damn shame. If it happened again tomorrow I don't think I'd do anything differently.