The season of cars vs wildlife

Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
3,310
Location
St. Louis
I'm surprised to hear of so many chasers suffering collisions with wildlife this season. Namely deer and turkeys! My incident was with a wild turkey in northern Missouri on April 16 that decimated the windshield, bent one wiper arm and trashed my hail guards' main rails. Damage cost was a little over $600. Definitely not as bad as it could have been, and I was able to limp home because the driver's side was still mostly intact. I saw reports on Twitter of two other chasers that hit turkeys that same day, one that penetrated the glass and nearly went through..

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Seems like I see someone that's totaled or almost totaled their car every Spring. I've hit one and also had one slammed into me after another car hit one. Many instances at night where I've seen them just in time while using lightbars /pods on deserted roads.
 
2016 was the year of the wildlife for me. I hit a deer in SD. Also hit a skunk in MO (yuck my car smelled) and a racoon in TX. I almost lost control on the raccoon trying to swerve to miss. don't ever do that

Dan, do you think the turkey got stuck by your guards and smashed into the window?
 
It impacted at the bottom of the glass, then deflected up into the guards. It somehow freed itself and flew away. The glass took the main impact force, which is a good thing as it might have bent the A pillar or roof strut otherwise.
 
That's impressive that it managed to fly off, although I'm guessing it didn't go too far. I had a vulture fly out of a roadside ditch that hadn't been mowed by the township, on a back road where there wasn't any shoulder, and it broke the glass out of my passenger side mirror... luckily it didn't take the housing with it. I've also hit several deer over the years with one nearly coming through the windshield (left a 3ft diameter hole in the window with a huge chunk of glass swinging around over the steering wheel/ deer went over the top of the car, caving in the roof)! It's crazy how much damage even a smaller animal can cause, let alone the cost of fixing it. I always feel terrible about hitting them too, but sometimes there's literally nothing you can do except stay home, lol. I try my best to give all critters a chance, but I won't wreck a car in the process.
 
It's no joke, at least three of these appear to be related to animal collisions or trying to avoid them:

 
I had my closest near death experience involving this situation.

Memorial Day 2019, I was on my way home from a chase in Kansas, heading east on I-80 near Grand Island around 11pm.
There was light rain/drizzle falling but nothing heavy enough to obstruct my visibility so I was cruising along at 80 mph.
I noticed a car with its hazards on pulled over on the right shoulder so I moved over to the left lane. As I came up on the vehicle, I remember taking one last glance over and at the last second out of the corner of my eyes ahead of me on the road I saw something.
IT WAS A COMPLETELY JACKKNIFED SEMI BLOCKING BOTH LANES OF EASTBOUND TRAFFIC!
Either it had no lights on or bc of the way it was laying with the cab facing towards the right shoulder and the trailer back across the road with its underside facing oncoming traffic, I couldn’t see any lights. In fact I didn’t see it at all until my low beam lights shined on the semi at the last moment as I had glanced over at the car on the shoulder.
My reaction to seeing whatever was in the road (I don’t think I knew it was a semi at first) was to slam on my brakes and jerk my steering wheel to the right.
I somehow managed to parallel the tractor trailer by mere feet as I headed to towards the ditch at a still high rate of speed.
To add another level to this, the car that was pulled over with its hazards on was actually another person who apparently must’ve had stopped to check on the semi driver, because as I flew towards the ditch I had to thread the needle between the semi and car AND THE DRIVER OF THE CAR THAT WAS WALKING ON THE SHOULDER OF THE INTERSTATE BACK TO THEIR VEHICLE.
I can still remember basically seeing the person fly by the passenger side of my car just as I was going into the ditch.
Besides getting lucky enough to see the semi at the last second to be able to swerve just in time and just missing possibly killing the person walking on the shoulder, I was also lucky enough to hit a flatter spot off the interstate when I went into the ditch. There were no signs, guard rails, or trees. I was able to keep the car under control and bc I didn’t want to possibly get stuck in the ditch, once I had everything under control, I turned the wheel to the left and kept driving in the ditch long enough to get past the semi and then drive back out onto the interstate.
I remember being basically in shock at very nearly dying and so I just kept driving. Probably 30 seconds later I let out a loud scream. I remember seeing the emergency vehicles responding from the other side of the interstate about that moment.
I proceeded to call my wife, parents, and my 2 best friends to tell them what happened.
I made it to York, NE where I finally stopped at a gas station and proceeded to cry for probably 15 minutes straight. I then drove the rest of the way home to Omaha.
I remember having chest tightness and pain for the next 24-36 hours afterwards but my doctor felt it was just the “shock” of the experience.

You know why the semi was jackknifed? A story in the Grand Island paper came out a day or two later. The truck driver swerved to miss a freaking deer and rolled the semi and trailer.

Sorry for the long detailed post and the capital letters. It helps me get through typing out that experience. I very likely should be dead/ and or could have killed or seriously injured that person walking on the shoulder too.

Probably a bit cheesy to some, but this picture I took of all the stuff on the floor of my car that was sitting on my seat before I had to slam on the brakes and swerve so hard. I can still hear that sound and see the underneath of the semi trailer.

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It's no joke, at least three of these appear to be related to animal collisions or trying to avoid them:

 
I have nothing close to Jeremy's experience (and hope I never do!), but several years ago while heading up to Wolf Creek Pass to chase thundersnow I hit a racoon. Thought it was no big deal, but then at my first stop near the summit I started seeing steam. Then the engine hot light and beeper came on. I turned the ignition off and let it cool then was able to coast down to the bottom of the west side of the pass, but as soon as the road was level it started heating again so I pulled over and shut it off. Was going to call Onstar but before I could a state trooper arrived and radioed for a tow. Darn racoon did in my radiator. I was a little surprised something that small could bust your radiator, but the tow truck driver said a week or two earlier he had towed someone that had hit a rabbit with the same result. Except that she did not stop when her engine overheated, and ended up frying her engine,
 
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