I spend a lot of time driving and often see roadkill, either on the highway or on city/town/country streets. That leads me to wonder: how do workers safely remove roadkill from the middle of streets - particularly the highway - without becoming roadkill themselves? It seems to me like a very dangerous job that basically involves walking out into the middle of the road with a shovel and crossing your fingers that an 18-wheeler isn’t just around the bend. Are there any techniques that they use to make the clean up safer?
I’ve also noticed that about half the time I see roadkill it is already on the side of the road. I can’t figure out why this is because cars don’t usually drive in the breakdown lane. I’ve come up with several possibilities, all of which seem to have flaws in them.
When hit by a car, the animal is flung onto the side of the road
People swerve to miss the animal and instead hit them on the side of the road
People swerve to intentionally hit the animal on the side of the road
The animal gets hit and then crawls to the side of the road before it actually dies
A worker comes around to do the hard bit and remove the animal from the middle of the road, and then leaves it there for another truck to pick up later
None of these seem quite right and so I was hoping that someone might be able to explain. Thanks for the help!
I don’t know why it tends to be on the side of the road, but around here roadkill is cleaned up by buzzards and crows. Actually, it’s often in the middle of the road with the birds waiting until the last minute to move when cars come.
people driving on the road will move it to the side. law enforcement, fire or other government workers may stop to remove the hazard of an animal in the road to prevent accidents.
If a big animal is killed in the middle of the road, cops or other workers will remove it or move it to the side. I would guess that they would put up hazard markers before doing so if there were any danger from traffic.
If a small animal is killed in the middle of the road, it will often be pulverized by being run over repeatedly by other vehicles. I have often seen piles of what looks like hamburger on busy highways. The pulverization will speed up decay or the removal of the remains by scavengers or rain.
I don’t think it’s “always” on the side of the road. I’ve seen plenty of dead dogs, cats, possums etc. on the center line, in the middle of the road, etc.
'Tis true, at least for the smaller animals—up to raccoon size, generally.
For deer, cows, and large dogs, drivers will move them off the road (if the conditions allow) or call the local authorities, who will set up roadblocks while they drag the critters to the shoulder or the ditch. Sometimes the cops will have a list of people they can call who want the venison from roadkill deer (fresh only), but more often they are left there to rot, be picked over by scavengers, or get picked up by the Sentenced-To-Serve road cleaners.
In my little valley, winter roadkill presents wonderful opportunities to watch bald eagles, if one is not too sqeamish.
I had a raccoon run out from a field at dusk once and run under my car. It happened so damn fast I could not stop to avoid the animal. I heard a thump, and looking in rearview mirror, I could see the poor thing in its death throes. I felt terrible.
I also saw a deer jump into a very busy Interstate from a forested area. It was a sight to behold, the deer leaping very gracefully and crashing on the roof of a car. Other cars began to slow down and brake and luckily, no accidents. The deer ricocheted in the direction of the median and was hit by another vehicle. Of course, it was killed. I had to get on the highway and several cars had pulled over, but from what I observed, only two actually hit the deer (it bounced off the roof of one vehicle, a large SUV, and was then flung across, onto the hood of a car in the next lane,) which gave it enough momentum to end up against the concrete median. The deer had jammed itself against the concrete barricade down the highway midsection, twisted and maimed. No one was hurt, but read about the incident later in the paper. Just a deer, but dangerous.
Our local bird sanctuary is one recipient of road kill. I think Conservation Officers will clean dead animals from roads, etc. The predator birds love the meals, and the roads get cleaned off, so two birds are killed…or rather, fed… with one road kill.