FWIW, I have driven 100's of thousands of miles in my short driving life (last 10 years). I lived in a semi-rural area in highschool and there were deer everywhere. I have never ever once hit an animal. I have had plenty of animals, deer included, try to commit suicide on my car. Always managed to fairly easily avoid them. Either I was driving slow enough that stopping was not an issue, or I was paying enough attention that I could make the MINOR correction needed to go right around them. I've missed a few deer by inches going in the 60's on back country roads. I have driven WAY more than almost anyone I know my age, and yet everyone else I know has managed to plow several animals in their driving career. Am I just lucky? I don't think so. I've had plenty of situations where, if I wasn't anticipating it, I would have hit the fucker. People just need to pay the fuck attention when they are driving. It's a chronic problem.
I know the first two items everyone thinks about is car and critter, but your insurance also plays a factor in this. If you hit an animal (other than human), it's considered a 'comprehensive' loss and isn't chargeable (doesn't make your rates go up). If you try to aviod the deer, ground hog, squirrel, etc., and then strike a tree, house or another car, it is now a collision loss and you are at fault and your rates will go up. And if you do hit the critter, DO NOT CLEAN OFF THE SHIT, FUR, MEAT, ETC. This will be the first thing an adjuster is looking for to confirm your loss. Just a few suggestions from your local independent appraiser...
I hit a large sheep dog once in my Fiero doing about 40 MPH. Messed up the front end of my car. Wasn't bummed about the car but sure was bummed about the dog.
Good point, but I think the distance between my head and the post will make it fairly narrow. If I was sitting very close and nearly "below" the shield, more like on a modern cab, a post like that certanly would make a blind spot when the driver was looking to his right. It is not a poster on the wall you see there. It is the box for a universal power lock kit i bought. Thanks for the positive response! I will make a thread with photos when the shield is finished.
Best story on this subject was witnessed by my buddy. He was driving a big rig on the David Thompson Highway here in Alberta going to the mountains. He was following two vehicles, The car in the lead had a large moose step out in front of them. They hit it square on the side missing the front and back legs, this gutted the animal and flipped the body over the car. The pickup following might have gone under it if they didn't have a CAMPER! The moose hit the camper right above the trucks windshield and promptly destroyed the camper with out scratching the trucks cab! All three vehicles came to a stop (buddy driving his rig through the bits and pieces that was the camper) Both Buddy and the pickup driver ran to the car only to find an elderly couple (with very big eyes) quietly sitting up to their arm pits in moose guts!!
I'll probably go to Hell for it, but I couldn't stop laughing at the moose photos in the car posted by Safariknut.......just an accident......hope the folks were ok and maybe they had a good BBQ afterwards. Moose is damn good. When I was younger, we shot deer with the aid of a spot light.......mostly because we wanted to make a big pot of chili in the wintertime to go along with the football games. The law here in Texas got downright cantankerous about the whole deal and in some cases made it a state jail felony......took all the fun out of it........ Your shootin' the "King's" deer ya'know. (gratuitious Robin Hood reference) But, if you accidently run over one of the to numerious critters, the State don't know who's motherfuckin' deer that is!
ok no deer here, but I hit a possum on my way home one day at around 11 pm .. I tried to avoid him ,but some how managed to contimplate in 1 nano-second, the thought of the guts and blood coming up from the gaps in the fire wall and pedal area(not sealed like todays cars). Well anyways I ran over him trying to keep the tires from crushing it, well I had a dropped axle and heard a hiss when I hit it than I looked back and it was having convulsions...gross. Then I hurried home to see the damage ...well mess...dude i got lucky, the dang thing must have just hit his head , no mess. Drove by the next morning, no possum.Either he walked away or coyote got him! Than some Lady hit my roadster in a suv in a parking lot when there was tons of parking all around but of course she wanted the closest parking space to the tanning salon and what do ya know.bang ! But luckly she hit my tire and knocked off her hubcap. I was scared....thought it was karma for the possum!
I don't know you could kill a possum! i've tried. stupid thing wouldn't die after being shot more than once! lucky so far and haven't hit any deer. used to riding motorcycles so I pay more attention than most I guess.
Of all the safety concerns I have had while building my modified I have to admit animal strike has not been one. Probably should have been. Roos are as big as a deer only they will gut you with their back feet if you let them in the car with you. I try not to worry too much about the unknown 'cause I don't want to drive a Volvo Pete
The woman who hit the moose suffered only a broken wrist and a bath in moose entrails;very lucky.A friend of mine sent me those pictures;happened somewhere in Canada. I nearly hit TWO moose at once(a cow crossing the road with her calf)in Northern Maine.Driving on a gravel road with a 3 week old car(new Mustang GT)going too fast and coming round a corner.Facing about a half ton of steaks on legs I opted to take a short cut through the woods rather than make the Mustang a convertible and me the Headless Horseman.Damn things looked like elephants!!!Only removed one side of the car.
Sounds like the best idea if you see a deer in your way is to nail it and hook it up for a wheelie and clobber whatever from on top.
Hey RugBlaster I have been dodging those 10 cent cat road kills for years. My 34 coupe sits 3" off the ground at the nose. Please pick up after your self or flatten the shit out them with your tires. Thanks
I drive a road sweeper and one night this deer jumps out of the bushes. the sweeper is has stadic drive ( when you go to stop the thing stops ) the third time the little basterd ran out in front of me I ran it over. The damn thing gets up and runs away. Next day there is a bloated deer in the road I got to drag off.
I hit a "wild horse" with a Jeep at 35 mph. Tamed the horse and totaled the Jeep. I hit a deer in a '53 Olds. The deer went totally under the car and got up and BOUNDED away. The Olds took no notice. A friend hit a Deer on a Harley and didn't even lay it down. Got the shit kicked out of him before he got stopped and he and the deer got untangled. I hit a dog on an Indian we all lived but none of us wanted to do it again. I don't know why the dog was on the Indian!
on the topic of hitting deers dam flying dogs with antlers I guess it would be better to speed up than slow down last week I slowed down and the deer ran into the side of my henry j 4000. in damages. safety first and nice wind shield frame
A deer jumped off an embankment on to the hood of my cousin's Mustang. It went through the windshield and out the back window and shit all the way. He figured that he'd make up for some of the damage with meat and threw the deer in the trunk. When he got home and opened the trunk the deer was awake and pissed! No chili!
I gotta agree with George....... it is often the second Deer that is hit. However, accelarating is not the right idea. My dad used to take me hunting every chance he got when I was younger, however, I have really killed three deer in my life so far. I killed one in a 1976 F100 Ford Pickup, one in a 1983 Chevy Camaro, and the other in my current daily a 1997 Ford Explorer. Each time, I slammed on the brakes, never swerved. I have also avoided two seperate ones by hitting the brakes and missing it cause it got out of the way in time. I may have hit them, but by slowing down, I didnt hit them near as hard as if I had sped up. Drove home from each one and went back and gathered two of them, up and put in the freezer after cleaning. All have done minor damage considerably to what they could have done. Even in the Camaro, it hit on the very corner of the car and went up over the roof/side of the car and pulled the antenna out and dented both of the fender flares. What I have learned though, never had much problem in daylight, all have been hit and the two near misses either really late at night, or really early in the morning. So around here, be more alert at dark hours. I think the windshield looks good, it doesnt look overly beefy at all.
Yesterday me and LAYDRAG were heading up I-75 out of Atlanta to go to the Paradise Nostalgia Drags. It was still in the "city". There were 4 lanes full of traffic and going 75MPH. Russ moved over 1 lane to the fast lane. I was looking around me to see where to move over, I looked up and ..... "What the hell is that?!" My brain said Discovery Channel - Alligator snapper 65lbs, 8" to 9" high as big around as a trash can lid ..... 1 second later .... BAAAAM!!! My 32 Truck is about 3 1/2" off the ground in the back (planning to fix that - it came out lower than planned ) its about 4" at the front. I heard a freaking loud bang bang bang all the way back. "Holy %&*#$ you gotta be shittin me!" I looked at the gauges to see if any pressure was lost or tranny lines broken or what. Looked out back - cars are too close - can't see anything. I keep feeling wet drops on my legs - open floorboard. I figure it might be coolant or what? I pick up the phone to call Russ to see if he saw a freaking 65lb turtle on the freeway .... no wait. That's just stupid. The car is still running , it was a bag of rocks, just forget it. Russ will laugh his ass off if I ask him if he saw a Turtle . That's just my hangover , it had to be a bag mellons. We pull in to a rest stop 30 minutes later . Russ jumps out, "Did you see that alligator snapper on the freeway! Holy shit is was as big as a trash can lid!" We looked at the damage. Enough scraps to make soup, blood all over the back of the truck, blood came up through the floor, bent my orig 32 grill . Probably a good thing it wasn't a big log . This ain't the one, but that's what I saw in the number 2 lane.
holy shit! you've gotta be kidding. on I-75? damn. that sucks about the grill, but glad it wasn't worse.
Can you believe that turtle? A face, (indeed a whole body) that only his mother could love........I've heard those are good eatin'......I'll bet not as good as a moose, however........If ya'll ever nail a moose and survive the encounter, be sure an cook it up, you won't be dissappointed................come to think of it, a moose ain't much better lookin' than that ugly-ass turtle...........great story.
Nice windshield center post. Don't make the trailing edge too sharp. October 10pm, northbound 60 mph in Door County, I was following another car, about 100 feet back. Top of a rise, a group of deer suddenly appeared in that car's headlights, some bounding high, left and right. One got hit, and landed on the centerline. Everyone in both directions has slowed to a crawl, except the car that hit it; they took off. Must be old hands at this. I rolled down my window; the big doe was lying on its side. As I crawled past, the doe lifted her head and looked me in the eye; she held my gaze. I called it in; the state patrol said someone nearby would be right out. Yeah, it's tough on our cars, and sometimes injures or kills us, but it always really stings for the deer. Even though the danged dumb things are at fault, it's tough not to feel some sympathy. Having said that, will I risk losing control by veering for a deer? Hell, no. Another night, late summer, northern MN, southbound on 53 from a fishing trip, driving a Civic, my brother asleep in the passenger seat. An adult black bear, his spine level with my nose, passes at full tilt from left to right in front of me. I just reflexively sidestepped the car a bit to the left with enough snap to rap my brother's noggin briskly against his side window. How I missed that bear I'll never understand. In memory, it seems as though the bear's shimmering hair over skin over moving flesh was all alive, power and purpose, heedless, right in front of me, left to right, a vision, a ghost, and I had no forward motion, sawing left then right at the wheel, pointlessly.
What pisses me off the most about those damn deer, is most of them don't even cross the road at the deer crossing signs. Ignorant bastards.
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