Hitting animals with your truck

You get more points if you hit truckers.

 

pit bull? the protocol is don't panic and cause a accident with another vehicle, flip, land in a ditch, etc. I've flattened a few animals, they run out or simply thers no time to move and splat.. haven't hit any big game to date.. tho pretty close

 

Never swerve or lock up the brakes to avoid hitting an animal. A busted grill is always preferable to a roll over or a jack knife, and almost all carriers consider road kill as a non-preventable accident. It is instinct to avoid hitting an animal, so you have to consciously override that instinct and hold your lane when Bambi runs out in front of you.

 

I started driving locally here in arkansas at the end of January. My route is mainly back highways and I drive overnight. I've slayed several deer, my best being 2 in less than an hour on 2 different highways. The first one scared the crap out me, I came around a curve and it was just standing in the middle of my lane. I started to swerve and quickly remembered that wasn't an option and luckily I was empty at the time as my loads are very top heavy hauling wood chips. I hit him square on full speed and once I was able to stop a few miles up the road, I got out and check the truck for damage... NONE!! I was shocked, got back on the road and hit another one this time the deer was running across the road following another deer and I caught it with my left steer tire... again no damage... If only I could slay deer like that during deer season while hunting... not sure of any protocol, I mean if you hit it, you just hit it, shed a tear, say prayer, whatever...

 

Any thing smaller than a deer I keep rolling and check for debris when I stop for fuel. Bigger than a deer I get out and check for damage.

 

Shmearing animals is one of the many hazards of driving a truck. I've hit many animals in my career, especially in the warm weather. I'm not a huge animal lover, but do feel bad when it happens. I'd run the truck off the road for a human, but won't wreck the truck for an animal. Something big, like a cow or a bear, I'd try and avoid, but small animals, so sorry. The best thing I've seen are those grill guard things you see nowadays. They can pay for themselves in one incident. I talked to a driver once that had one of those, and asked him how that worked, he said, he hadn't hit anything with it yet, but was kind of looking forward to it.

 

I'll never forget my first one was a beagle when I was in training. I was headed down a two lane with the trainer in the sleeper. Another truck was approaching from the other direction. Out of no where comes a beagle in front of that other truck. His tongue hanging out happy as can be. He tucked his rear end as he barely cleared the truck. He even looked happy he made it until he turned his head and seen me! Thump! Thump! My trainer come out of the sleeper. "What was that"?... "I just hit a dog". Better him than hitting the other truck.

Then one day running across the desert I was looking to the side at the scenery. As soon as I turned my head forward it was like a huge Pterodactyl coming at me with a wingspan as wide as my truck. It happened so fast there was nothing I could do. I knew it was coming through the windshield. It hit and bounced off, feathers flying everywhere. I looked in the mirror and all I could see was a huge wing tumbling to the ground. It left a dust print on my windshield a little bigger than a basketball. I just had to see what is was.

It was like 8 miles to the next exit so I turned around. It was about 15 miles back the other way to that exit to get turned around again but it was worth it. I finally got back to where it happened and pulled off on the shoulder. I didn't walk 50 feet behind the trailer and I found the huge wing. It was black with a white stripe on it is all I had to go on. I walked around and couldn't find anything else. After I got home I researched it and found out it was a California Condor. They were on the extinction list back then with around 200 in the wild. I was like holy crap! I didn't want to be involved with wiping out a whole species. Luckily they have made a come back since then.

My other road kill story was funny. It was late at night, wet and foggy out. I just got to the customer to deliver. As I turned into the entrance a skunk ran up under my tandems. Thump! Thump! I got out and whew doggie! Chuckling I went inside and checked in. I backed to the dock and went back inside. I stunk up the whole dock area and they were all covering their noses. They put three forklifts on my truck to get me out of there, lol. They had me unloaded in 20 minutes.

So if you are in a hurry, find you a skunk to run over.


For you newbs, never swerve. You can't predict what the animal will do and the last think you need is the load shifting from a quick jerk. Just hold your line with maybe a gentle sidestep is all you can do. Don't wreck or kill people over some animal. I'm a pet lover but this is one thing you can't help. You will run over stuff.

I had one truck that I hit birds all the time. It didn't happen much with other trucks, just that truck. It was the only maroon truck I drove so I figured it was the color. I hit more at dusk than any other time. You'd be driving down the road and up top you would hear thump!. There went another bird.

 

Husband was in a 2005 Volvo and a deer decided he wanted to jump out in the road in front of us. Took out the passenger side front light and some of the fender, cracked the hood. It was pretty tall.

He took out a deer this past winter in North East, MD, messed up a little bit on passenger side steps, but not too bad; and about 3 nights later in DE, this one messed up some air lines underneath the tractor that roadservice had to come out and fix.

I think the cattle guard needs to be a lot taller myself.

I believe the lingo in the past was "the deer committed suicide, not you hit it". If you hit it, some whack a job safety might put down as a preventable, or least that's what we were told eons ago.

 

And they have elk too now, something that wasn't there 40 yrs ago.