I will do what I can to avoid hitting small animals.
I do have a squirrel story.
Years ago my main mode of transportation was a motorcycle. I had gone to some store and found a great deal on a television… which wouldn’t fit on the back of my bike. I hired a cab to take the TV and he’d follow me home.
Heading down a fairly busy 4 lane street, in the oncoming lanes, I see a squirrel attempt to cross. He’s darting in and under cars, just being missed by tires, and in total panic mode. If he were to make it to my side of the street he’d be free and clear afer me and the cab.
He darts over into my lane heading towards the right side of the street. I move my bike over to the left side of the lane to give him a better chance. Right as I’m about to pass him he decides to change his mind and go back where he came from.
I hit him square on. Ran him over flat from head to tail - both tires.
My house wasn’t far from there and when we arrived the cab driver was still laughing. He thought I was trying to hit him.
USE THE HORN!!!
I will safely do anything I can do to avoid hitting an animal, but many of them are frozen in fear… a loud “HONK!” from your car might just galvanize them into action…
BTW< I live in moose country and DO NOT use the horn on adult male mooses in Rut… to them, its just a challenge, and they mass out at about 15,500 squirrels on average… For a Male moose in rut, I just slow down and try and drive by their back end…
regards
FML
Regards
FML
I swerved to avoid a rabbit on a country 2 lane. This set up an oscillation that resulated in me spinning out and backing into a ditch by the side of the road. It tore off the front air dam, but I was able to get moving again. It could have been much worse. Next time bugs gets it.
Not to pick on Happy Wanderer, but as a high performance driving instructor, I came here to urge people never to swerve to avoid anything in the road (short of a human being) for exactly this reason. A sudden jerk to the steering wheel can unsettle the car in ways that you will be unprepared to cope with unless you have racetrack or skid pad experience.
Brake hard if you want, as long as 1) there’s no one following closely, 2) you’re going straight on level ground or an upward incline, and 3) the road surface is dry and free of dirt or gravel. But don’t even do that if you’re in a turn or heading downhill, or if it’s wet or icy.
You may have been driving for 10 or 20 years, but trust me, without special training you won’t have the skills or experience to avoid over-correcting when your rear end swings around on you. You could end up like Happy Wanderer or worse. It’s just not worth it to save the life of a squirrel.
Well, I am a pretty damn good driver. In a more forgiving vehicle all might have been well, but I was driving a 2000 VW GTI VR6 with a modified suspension (shocks, beefed up swaybars, low profile Pirellis). It was always a little prone to oversteer, but I was totally unprepared for the violence of the oscillation. The car was just tail happy as hell. God I miss that car.
Now I am driving a Dodge Ram 2500 conversion van and swerving at highway speeds is out of the question. :eek:
I have a funny squirrel story…I was on a residential street and there were two squirrels in the middle of the road. One was chasing a black walnut still in its husk, rolling down the street. The other squirrel would run a few steps and then jump straight up in the air. They were both very intent on catching that nut and didn’t notice that I was driving toward them. I stopped and the one closest to the nut made a lunge, caught it and ran to safety. The other one stopped in the middle of the road and just sat there. Cars were coming up behind me, so I drove on, positioning the tires on either side of the squirrel and hoping he didn’t make a run for it. He didn’t, and in the rear view mirror I saw him scoot across the street and join his friend.
Swerving can catch even the best of drivers off guard and you can easily lose control. My cousin was traveling in a car as a passenger when the driver swerved to miss a squirrel. He lost control and hit a tree head on. She suffered a major closed head injury resulting in her being completely disabled. That squirrel is sooooooo not worth it.
As an insurance adjuster, auto insurance policies have a funny little quirk. Collision with an animal is normally considered under your Comprehensive coverage. Most of us have a smaller deductible under our Comprehensive coverage so it’s a good thing. However, if you swerve and miss the animal and end up in the ditch or a tree, it’s considered under your Collision coverage which is usually a higher deductible as well as an at-fault accident on your record.
Today’s lesson… unless that animal is human, don’t swerve.
God I miss that car.