what luck

[SHISVX]

diving with the b/f in his Yukon, we hit a deer last night. she was a good size and she bounced off his chrome bumper and went flying like 5 feet then proceeded to roll down the hill. the poor thing was still alive for a while, while we waited for the cop to come and shoot her. she didn't suffer too long. she had a severe hemorage to the head. probably some interal injuries. the cop came, a friend of ours, and made out a report. the only damage that was done was that the GMC was popped out of the grill..lucky him, his second accident in like 2 wks with his new truck (the last time he was rearended by a person that was rearended)

on my way home, i was driving slower, just because i thought, hey, what if i hit something too, well....i guess i didn't drive slow enough...i hit a coon he was a big mother! anyways, i blew out a fog light, that is all. i guess i was lucky too. if i had a chrome bumper, the little monster wouldn't have seen what was coming. i still feel bad though, i don't like to kill anything.

my question is....what the hell? do animals stand on the side of the road and get like extra points if they can cross the street in front of a car and not get hit? two extra points if the car goes off the road? it is like that comercial with Gyco...with the squirrels? birds are the worst, even though they don't do as much damage, why don't they just fly over the car, instead of into the car?

ok i am down ranting

Kelli

[svxistentialist]

Hi Kelli

Sorry to hear of your bad luck with animals. In answer to your question, I suspect most animals are killed at night-time in the glare of our lights. Many of them are nocturnal movers and hunters. For this, their eyes are attuned to the darkness. Then we come along with a zillion candlepower, they look towards the lights, and can now see nothing, their pupils have contracted. Scared, they run away, often across our path, sometimes running along ahead of the danger.

I think "awareness" is the key here. I tend to scan the road for animals about to cross, and react by slowing down if I see the tell-tale eyes looking towards me. Primarily, like you, I would hate to hit and maim any creature if I could safely avoid it. Just as importantly, I do not want to damage my vehicle, or do any dangerous avoidance manouvres. Even being very careful, they will still hit you at times.

Deer are a special case. The number of hits here is because of overlap between their environment[the countryside] and our human environment[the road]. A deer's defence mechanism relies on being alert to predators, and being able to outrun, outjump and turn faster than any natural predator. This natural mechanism has not yet evolved to understand that mechanised man can reach and hit them in fractions of a second. For that reason, I am more scared of hitting deer than any other animal or bird out there.

Get the fog light replaced by deer radar

Joe
PS Randy's got some hi-falutin animal defense on his mods list.

[SHISVX]

i know how animals eyes work. i cut up quite a few of them in A&P class. the mechanism that makes the nocturnal vision looks like paua shell. it is pretty. anyways, their mothers should teach them to look both ways before crossing the street.

it is quite hard to see an animal when you are coming around a turn and there they are in the middle of your lane. the roads i travel (locals would know rt 611) are very curvy and hilly, so it is hard to spot them before they come out of the woods. i just don't like to see an animal suffer. we saw many deer that were hit by cars on rt 31 at my vet hospital. if they were only stunned, we would take them in for a night and let them go. working there i learned a lot about animals in general.

Kelli

[svxistentialist]

I was just using a little animal psychology, don't fancy choppin them up to see why they're stupid!

Just kidding.

It always strikes me as strange that scavengers are clever and intelligent enough to be able to adapt to man and machines, while most game species, by that I mean preyed upon by men or other animals, tend not to learn about transport. They will of course run away from guns.

Any farmers on the board can attest to crows or seagulls being brave around a tractor working in a field. A man walking, they fly off at shotgun range.

Maybe in time they will adjust. Guns have been around for hundreds of years, cars and the like for only one hundred.

[CigarJohnny]

LOL...I LOVE that Geico commercial with the squirrels!

Anyway, I can understand your feelings. I never hit a deer yet but have hit many other animals including a dog. The dog one really freaked me out, being the dog lover I am, but luckily he was not hurt. Isn't funny how you can hit another critter on the way home from hitting a deer? Years ago when working at one job site I had a record day as far as hitting things. I hit a squirrel on the way to the site, a rabbit on the way to get my lunch, a bird on the way back from lunch, and something else, a possum I believe, on the way home from work. I felt pretty bad. Whenever I feel bad when thinking about such things, I remember the scene from "Me, Myself & Irene" where they stumble on a cow lying in the middle of the road and try to put it out of it's misery, and I can't help but crack up just thinking about it.

Better luck in the future and be glad it was only your foglight that was damaged by little ol' Rocky.

By the way, are we ever gonna get a Jersey/PA mini meet going one evening?

[SHISVX]

if we do have that meet, it has to be in some place that is warm it is too cold out to be hanging out in a parking lot. let me know if you come up with any idea

Kelli

[Shadow248]

WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE HERE!!!

YOUR boyfriend drives a GMC?

WHOA what's with that FORD GIRL!?

Isn't this the same guy who argued for some time with me about the GT40?

Maybe he has finally seen the light?

[SHISVX]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Shadow248
[B]WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE HERE!!!

YOUR boyfriend drives a GMC?

WHOA what's with that FORD GIRL!?

Isn't this the same guy who argued for some time with me about the GT40?

BTW did you read up on that car????!! DAMN das quick!


ok ok ok...LOL i remember that conversation well...lol...yeah that is the same guy. he wanted a Expedition..but he couldn't afford it. the CHEVY was CHEAPER...lol...i pick on him all the time. all he says is "at least i don't drive a car that runs on rice" only he could get away with saying that, but in the same return, he is the one that begs me all the time.."oh, can i drive it???" i don't hate on Chevy to much, if i had to choose a car, i would choose ford, but the chevy would be next on my list. it would def be before Dodge EHK! you know what it says under dodge in the dictionary right?

BTW when are you, me, him, and Mandi hanging out again?

Kelli

[Seraph]

<<at least i don't drive a car that runs on rice>>

Uh?

[SHISVX]

Originally posted by Seraph
<<at least i don't drive a car that runs on rice>>

Uh?

oh what is that for eh? he is only kidding when he says it...you should hear what he says about our friend's Civic...lol

Kelli

[mohrds]

Originally posted by SHISVX
you should hear what he says about our friend's Civic...lol
Kelli

Friends don't let friends drive Civics...

Speaking of Civics. The other day I saw a blue 4 door civic that was dropped about 4 inches, had little 13 inch rims that stuck out of the wheel wells at least 3 inches, gold trim, race stickers everywhere and what looked to be DUAL 3 inch exhaust pipes. The guy pulled up next to me at the stoplight and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Luckily he was in the left turn lane and I was in the straight lane.

Doug

[Seraph]

glad you were driving. If it was me, I'd still be LMAO at that light.

[sfsvx]

From deer strikes to slammed Civics - my, how these threads do ramble!

The initial response of many animals to perceived threats is to freeze, not run - many predators respond more quickly to movement than they do to shape, colors, etc. Deer in the road, lights hit her, she freezes while assessing the danger, blam!

While driving in Germany one night, I had a deer jump OVER my car to get from one side of the road to the other. At least that's what I think it was.