While Driving, Do You Hit Animals or Avoid Them?
By Pigglies
@Pigglies (9329)
United States
August 10, 2008 11:03pm CST
I try my best to avoid animals on the road. I've never hit one yet unless you count insects, in which case, thousands have landed on my windshield. But if your dog or cat runs in front of my car, it has pretty good chances of being okay since I have not hit one yet. I've mostly had wildlife run in front of me, and haven't hit anything. However, I would not attempt really stupid moves to avoid hitting an animal. I always know where other cars are around me, so if I can, I will swerve. If not, I'll just feel bad I guess when that day comes.
But today I was driving along and someone ahead almost swerves into another car. Then there was almost a pile up. And then the car in front of me hits a squirrel. And I realized the squirrel caused the whole thing. I managed to avoid the squirrel, but immediately felt sorry that I did not hit the poor thing because I saw it in my rear view mirror writhing about in the road. Hopefully someone else hit it.
But it got me to thinking, what do people do when they see animals on the road? Would your instinct be to swerve dangerously or do you think in these moments and realize if you can move away or not? Or worse yet, do you try to hit the animal?
1 person likes this
18 responses
@mlhuff12 (797)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I always try to avoid them. But I have to think of myself before the animal. I make sure that I am able to avoid them, I don't want to cause in accident which I will be paying for for a while. But yes I do try to avoid them. Most of the times I do succeed. And when I don't I do feel a little sad. But I do quickly forget about it. But if it was a cat or a dog I believe it would make me more upset than if it were a squirrel or a rabit.
1 person likes this
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
12 Aug 08
I always think it would be the opposite for me. I'd feel worse killing wildlife. A cat I wouldn't feel too bad about because anyone stupid enough to have an outdoor cat around here isn't going to have it for long, as they usually get eaten by a coyote within 2 weeks of being put outside. I have almost hit a dog before. A lady was walking a black dog in the street at night but she was on the sidewalk. I would have felt bad for the dog, but not the owner because she was being an idiot.
@GnosticGoddess (5626)
• United States
11 Aug 08
Luckily I haven't hit any animals yet either.
I do the same thing you do - move or slow down until they can get out of the road.
My hubby has hit a couple in his day though he does try to avoid them the best he can. A couple he's hit really killed themselves. He'll have them safety between his tires and they'll stand up - knocking their brains out (so to speak). He hates it.
1 person likes this
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
5 Sep 08
Depends. If I can safely go around them, sure, i avoid them. If it's big enough, like a mosse to kill me when I hit it, I avoid it at all cost (unless the alternative is bigger, like a house or large tree). If it is small enough not to kill, seriously maime me or my car and it is an accident risk for me to try and avoid it, the animal loses.
@tlb0822 (1410)
• United States
11 Aug 08
If the animal is able to be avoided, then I will swerve. But I will not go into on coming traffic with cars coming at me to avoid hitting the animal. I mean I would feel really bad, but I wouldn't want to put my familys life in danger. I would never try to intentionally hit an animal though that is just wrong.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
12 Aug 08
I agree. I hate when people tell me that they tried to hit a cat or a squirrel or something.
We don't get many cats on the road out here due to the coyotes, but I've had to pick up a couple neighbors dogs and bring them back to them so that others don't hit them.
@mikeysmom (2088)
• United States
11 Aug 08
i always try to avoid them too but sometimes slamming on the brakes or swerving can cause an accident. my first instinct is always to avoid them though as i would never want to hurt an animal.
1 person likes this
@samijo719 (1052)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I would never hit an animal on purpose! But if it meant I would be seriously injured avoiding it, I guess you have to weigh that option. But I find it horrible that people just hit them without trying to avoid them.
About 2 months ago me and my boyfriend were driving and there was a coyote in the road. He swerved to miss it as there were no other cars on the road and I looked back to make sure he got across okay and I wish I hadn't. This guy in a truck didnt even tap his breaks. If he would have even TAPPED his brakes the thigns would have made instead he drove right into and kept going like it was nothing. It was HORRIBLE. I cannot understand peoples thinking like that!
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
12 Aug 08
That is horrible! I don't get that either. Even if you only cared about yourself and your stuff, it seems like that heartless guy should have at least cared that it could mess up his truck or something. I don't get people who won't slow down. I try not to slow down sometimes since it's difficult to get my car back up to speed. But if I had to avoid something I definitely would.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
11 Aug 08
I really do not care about insects. They deserve to get splattered. My husband drives and I will yell at the animals to get out of the way. In most cases, they do, bu there was a close call with this very slow bird that was just walking across the road. We did not hit it but only because there was a safe place to turn off to. If one cannot help it, one will hit it and that is better than being overturned in a ditch, but luckily for the animals we came across, they had pretty good hearing and could understand when a person said, "Get out of the way!"
@applefreak (3130)
• Singapore
11 Aug 08
when i drive, i do my utmost best to not hit anything. a living thing is a living thing, i'll not hit either if i have a choice. a pile up is nothing compared to taking a life, big or small. the only scenario i will hit a living thing is when there is nothing i can do. if it's too late to swerve or e-brake, i guess i really have no choice. but as long as there is something i can do, i will do it.
a pile up is mainly caused by people driving too close to each other. whatever happened to maintaining a safe distance? and the poor animal got blamed for it. cheers ;p
@Jerrymouse (697)
• Malaysia
11 Aug 08
I think up until now, the only animal I have ever run over when I am driving is the frog because they tend to be on the road at night and there are times when you don't notice them until after you have run over them. But I will break this record soon because my neighbour's dog kept chasing my car when I am driving, sometimes they run in front and bark, most of the time they run alongside my car and it won't be long before it got hit by a passing car or even mine if I have to make a sudden sharp turn on that narrow road.
@twallace (2675)
• United States
12 Aug 08
That is so good, at least the day time you can see them. But at night that is something different. You have to watch to road more closely for deer, posses, rackoons. the squirrel are a little more smarter in how they cross the road. I live in the country and you always see road kill on the road. Snakes, turtles too from time to time.
@walijo2008 (4644)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I would try my best not to hit the animal, but if there was another car coming I would have to hit the animal to keep myself from getting hit, either that or go into the ditch or something. I have hit a deer once, here that happens alot, and sometimes you can't avoid it, they come out of nowhere and run out in front of you, unless you see them ahead of time, then you can slow down and see what they are going to do, sometimes they'll run back into the woods. The squirrel thing reminds me of a commercial they show on tv, I think its an insurance commercial, theres these squirrels in the road, and this car comes along and swerves to miss them, and runs into a tree, then they show the squirrels and they're over there high-fiving each other, its funny.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
12 Aug 08
Seriously, the squirrels around here are in a conspiracy like that Geico commercial. It sure seems like it!
That's what I've always heard about deer, they just run right out. We don't get many deer here, so thankfully I've never even seen one on the road.
@moondrop824 (241)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I avoid hitting them. If it's big, like a deer or something then yes, i'll slow to almost a halt and let them pass but if it's unavoidable like a skunk or small animal sometimes you can't stop fast enough and end up hitting them. Plus if it's big it could be dangerous for you and your passengers if you hit it and it could do serious damage to your vehicle also.
@leftyrules2008 (74)
•
12 Aug 08
I do try to avoid them, but sometimes that is not possible. I hit a deer a couple of years ago. I had two choices get in the other lane where a car was, or hit the deer, so I hit the deer. It was horrible, my car was totalled and I felt terrible about killing a deer. I was lucky I had full coverage on my car and my insurance paid off my car plus got me into a new one. Not a fun situation anyway you look at it.
@deviliciousamy (20)
• United States
11 Aug 08
i deffinatly wouldnt hit it intentionally. but if it came between hitting an animal or my van with my children in it going off the side of a clif (im in the mountains) i would for sure hit the animal.i would feel terrible but thankful that i didnt go off the side of the road and my kids are safe.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
12 Aug 08
Oh yikes! Yeah, definitely don't swerve if you're up in the mountains. One of my friends went off a cliff (not from swerving to save an animal though) and she got all messed up. Horrible accident. She can't bend her neck and she got a brain injury too.
@babystar1 (4233)
• United States
11 Aug 08
When I am driving on the road and a animal is crossing and no one is behind me I will always try to avoid them. Sometimes it hard to do but I never hit one yet.
@frankiecesca (2489)
•
11 Aug 08
We don't get a lot of animals here in my area that are widlife but I once did hit a squirrel and I was that upset I had to pull over because I was crying that much.
So I guess my answer would be if I saw an animal in time I would swerve!
@psphacker (1053)
• United States
11 Aug 08
while driving if i knew how i will avoid animals because it is a sin to kill right.
@newar18 (24)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I try to avoid any animals I can the only reason I would hit an animal would be if it was out of my control ie they moved in front of the car so quickly I could not avoid them or avoiding them would endanger my life and/or car.
