Animals on the road.

If it hadn't been for my backup camera, I would have squashed our cat in the first week I had my Prius. He was lounging behind the Prius and since he didn't hear anything, he didn't move. Now we are both more careful.

When I was a child, a trucker driving an oil tank truck ran over my dog; we didn't know the dog had slipped outside. The trucker parked his rig and asked the neighors whose dog he had hit. When he found out it was ours, he brought the dead and bloody dog to our front door. He was obviously upset and very kind-hearted. My mother kept me from coming to the door, but I overheard the conversation and immediately started wailing. Poor man -- to kill the dog and hear the stricken child!

I wish I had his courage and integrity.

 

Yesterday, I was driving up I-5 in Washington, happily following another Prius, when a deer ventured out onto the highway. The Prius in front of me struck the deer full-on, and I watched in horror as it flew into the air and then ended up in the ditch next to the highway. I stopped to make sure the woman (and her car) were ok (I knew the deer would not be ok). Remarkably, the Prius had only some damage to the front bumper and hood on one side, but did not appear to suffer any major damage. The woman was shaken up, but also ok. It could have been a lot worse, and I was glad to see how well the Prius handled the collision.

 

Maybe more animals run out in front of a Prius because the car is so quiet -- they aren't scared off by the sound.

I ran over a pidgeon who was just sitting there in the middle of the road as I came round a corner. I felt so bad -- one minute it was a living creature, and then it's gone. I hope I killed it outright though.

 

I have hit only 1 rabbit so far. I was taking my wife to work at about 5:00 am and the rabbit made 3 different dashes and the last one was just as I got close enough not to be able to see it anymore. My grandfather always told me never to swerve but to brake as much as possible. I couldn't have swerved anyway because it was in a series of curves with trees on both sides and the curves are such that you can't see headlights coming until they are almost upon you. I felt bad about it but I wasn't about to endanger mine or my wife's life for an animal. By the way, I was only travelling 30-35 mph at the time.

 

As my wife and I were headed home from a weekend in Michigan's U.P. my wife (the one driving) commented that my Pontiac Montana van isn't very comfortable to drive or ride. I began telling her that I really wanted a Prius but I had decided to make the van last one more year. As I finished my sentence a deer ran directly in front of us. Four days later, I had my Prius.
Four weeks later, I was in the U.P. again with my new Prius. I went out in the evening to visit a friend. As I left the cottage, Jean said "don't hit any dear."
I was back within 15 minutes to anounce, "Well I didn't hit a deer. I hit a bear with the Prius".
I had fewer than 2,000 miles on the odometer. I must say, it was a bit creepy contemplating getting out of the car to check the damage without knowing what had become of the bear.
My insurance company didn't like it, but I insisted on using the Toyota dealer's body shop. On a car this new, I wanted strictly Toyota parts. Yesterday I got it back. It looks great, but I'll always wonder how many years or miles I took off my cars service life.
I never found any trace of the bear. I can't imagine it lived long, but who knows?
Is it possible that the Prius' quietness increases the risk of this sort of encounter? I don't think the whistles I see on cars are a legit solution. Any suggestions for upgrading the cars lights?
I've attached a couple of pictures of my Prius taken shortly after the incident.[attachmentid=9732] [attachmentid=9733]

 

I ran over a pigeon once. It was sick, just sitting behind my front tire. It didn't move, even when the car engine started - it was a 1997 Tercel. It squooshed under the tire and the guts came out its mouth. My husband cleaned it up. All the other pigeons were sitting there watching him.

I did see a goat cross the street once. It was in Gilbert, AZ. This was a while back so it wasn't yet all built up. The light was red and he just sat there on the sidewalk. As soon as it turned green, he made his way across the street using the crosswalk. It was like he was used to going out for a morning walk or something.

 

Thought I would bump this thread as I am quickly realizing that hitting animals is the greatest flaw with the Prius. (IMHO) I hit a squirrel this morning. He didn't even try to run. Probably didnt hear me

 

This is slightly off topic, but still a good story. Years ago we lived in Indiana in a subdivision that had been carved out of farm land. One of our neighbors came home one night to find a cow standing in their driveway. They didn't hit the cow, they just wanted it to move so they could put their car away. Now a cow is a pretty big animal, and if it doesn't want to move, it's not easy to persuade. Being city folks, they tried honking, flashing lights, and yelling, but all to no avail, so they called the local police. To their story, the officer on the phone replied: "You got a freezer?" I still don't know how they got the cow out of the driveway.

Tom

 

I haven't hit any animals other than bugs (poor them). Thankfully. Once I drove to northern MI in my friend's Camry and was stopped at a stop sign. Then I noticed a pigeon crossing on the crosswalk. I had to stop for about a minute for it to clear the road. It took it's time to walk.

 

I dodge lizards all the time on the road. I also brake for birds but I aim for cats rabbits and snakes. Sorry, I hate them all.

I also avoid Roos and Wombats. Hitting a Wombat can do serious damage to a car and doesn't do the Wombat any favours either.

A few weeks back I thought a pigeon had made it cleanly over the roof of my patrol car, when I reached my destination I discovered the snapped antenna. I bet he was sore.

 

That's more animals that I've hit in my entire 30 year driving career.

I haven't hit anything since the deer I hit in 1996.

 

Only slightly off topic. Being relatively fresh in my driving career I've had relatively few run ins with animals on the road. To date, zero.

I have, however, had a rather odd sidewalk run in. Was riding my bicycle home one day and a squirrel decided to run out in front of me on the sidewalk....and stop. Dead center, a few feet in front of me. No time to swerve. It all happened so quickly, not sure if it was the way the sidewalk buckled or my quick pull up, but I ran over the little guy/girl right across the back. Looked back and he/she was scampering up the nearest tree.

Maybe he was doing it on a dare or to show off for a cute girl squirrel. Who knows?

 

I recall some twenty years ago, I was renting a house with two other guys more or less out in the boondocks and waking to the sound of something chewing on the flowers outside my window... It was a cow that somehow managed to make its way out of its fenced area and two miles away from home.

It scared the heck out of my ride, who apparently managed to avoid meeting farm animals his entire life.

After three days of hoping the animal would go away, we finally told our landlord (who lived across the street) that we were going to buy a large freezer after work to hold all the meat... that cow was not there when we came home.

More on topic, I managed to wipe out an entire generation of rabbits once-- mommy dashed across the road and I managed to slow down and avoid hitting her, but then all her baby bunnies dashed under my tires at the last second.

 

To follow up on my earlier post. This was the first mammal that I have ever hit... I am an animal lover and it has been bugging me all day. I hesitate to even tell my wife. (She is 9 1/2 months pregnant and fragile.)

 

In 13K miles, I've hit one bird with the Prius.

Of course, I tend to watch for animals, always have, especially when I lived in Minnesota, where the deer were seriously suicidal.

 

Well how about running over a dead deer? It was late at night and I was driving along, when all of a sudden I ran up on this dead deer in the road. Couldn't go any way other than over it and BOY what a mistake, when I finally stopped there was a leg hanging out the back of the car and parts of the deer all under the car. Upon continueing driving it began to smell awful bad, so the next day I took the car to the Prius dealer to have it checked for damage under the car and the smell (No damage to outside of car, was VERY LUCKY) long story short took 1 & 1/2 hrs. to clean the underside of deer parts using bleach and other smelly stuff. Thought it would cost me a mint for the job, but dealer felt so sorry for me as he had never seen anything like it before so he didn't charge me anything, go figure!

 

Oh I forgot, I side swiped a cow in my work car once. It was very dark raining and another car went past the other way with hazard lights on. I was looking to see what the hazard light driver was up to when the cow dragged it's bum down the passenger side of the car pulling the mirror right off and denting front fender and door.

Kill one cat on the road how many small animals do you save?

 

Wild Boars

In the rural areas where I use to drive isn't unusual to get a nice encounter with a wild boar. And these solid and great beast have their way very clear, they cross without change direction for nothing in the world. A hit is almost find a rock in the way.

Sometimes we can see wolves, incresing numbers latelly, but they are much more sharp... Almost imposible to run over them.