
(Beth Clifton collage)
Reader testifies: these tips work!
“Your 28 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too! article saved the life of a squirrel yesterday!” testified California reader Jim Jensvold on September 20, 2018.
“What I learned from that article has saved multiple lives,” Jensvold added. “Mostly squirrels, but also coyotes, bobcats and deer, and the occasional unidentifiable rodent.


“I have seen too many killed animals by and on the road,” Jensvold wrote on an earlier occasion, urging his Facebook friends to read 28 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too! “How many deaths could have been avoided? You may not be able to avoid every animal, but what if you learned something that would save just one animal’s life––or your own?”
Take Jim Jonsvold’s word for it: 28 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too! are 28 ways that work, both for squirrels and for drivers.


28 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too!
From real-life experience
by Merritt & Beth Clifton
Caught in the I-90 divider strip approaching Missoula, Montana, the panic-stricken four-point buck in velvet bolted repeatedly into the west-bound fast lane, then pivoted back to avoid oncoming cars.
Driving at the speed limit in the “slow lane,” with no cars behind us for a mile or more, Beth and I saw the buck from a quarter mile away. We immediately slowed, put on our four-way flashers to warn the cars behind of a hazard, and turned into the emergency lane about 100 yards from the buck.
The buck took the opportunity to dart as far as the middle of the “slow lane,” 10 feet from safety in front of us.


Animals rarely run in straight lines
Had the buck continued in a straight line, he would have been back into the woods and out of sight within seconds.
But instead of slowing down to see if we might be stopping because of a road hazard, two vehicles with Montana plates decided that was the time to accelerate to pass us. Startling backward, the buck barely dodged a pickup truck who swerved into the emergency lane to avoid him, cutting off his escape.
Driving in the “fast lane,” zooming up to about 90 miles per hour to pass the pickup, a small dark blue car, perhaps a BMW, hit the buck broadside without even visibly braking before the impact.
The buck catapulted end over end over the top of the car, landed in the grass divider strip, and thrashed as if with a broken back. Cars in the eastbound lanes slowed just a little to see what had happened.


Survived––for a while
Then, incredibly, the buck rose to his feet, staggered through the oncoming traffic with several more near-misses, and pushed his way through the second of two gaps that he tested in a barbed wire fence before disappearing into the forest.
The buck, though alive and using all four legs, was almost certainly badly injured. Very likely he will soon be prey for wolves, coyotes, or perhaps a grizzly bear.
The dark blue car, whose occupants were three middle-aged women, stopped in the emergency lane half a mile ahead of us. Beth ran to tell the occupants what we had been able to ascertain of the fate of the buck. The women were not interested. The driver was solely concerned about her broken left front headlight, which had apparently taken the brunt of the impact.


Dog in the road!
Half an hour later, having left I-90 to visit the National Bison Range, we saw a white dog in the road, just short of the town of Arlee, where the speed limit drops to 35 miles an hour.
Again we put on our four-way flashers and slowed to stop in the emergency lane.
This time, though, a speeding pickup truck behind us, doing at least 70 miles an hour, actually tried to pass us on the right by swerving into the emergency lane, even as we turned into it. We narrowly avoided colliding as the pickup jerked back to the left, also barely missing the dog, who ran away.
The two incidents underscored two of the most important points about how driving to avoid road-killing animals can save your life, as well.
First, and very obviously, speed kills. Driving above the speed limit, even in the Big Sky country of Montana, is unequivocally dangerous and stupid. Trying to pass anyone on the right, especially in an emergency lane, is even more dangerous and more stupid.


(Beth Clifton photo)
When you see flashers, slow down!
Second, and we would think equally obvious, is that when a car ahead puts on four-way flashers and slows down, drivers behind should also slow down and look for the reason why.
Very often the reason will be an obstacle in the road––an animal, a pedestrian, a piece of metal, a boulder, something lost off another vehicle––and slowing to avoid it is just plain common sense.
We have occasionally hit animals ourselves. Just before updating this article in early 2017, which was then called “27 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too!,” I struck and killed my first deer in more than 40 years of driving in heavily populated deer habitat.


Curves are especially dangerous
A half-grown fawn, she bolted into the road from the inside of a curve on an uphill grade, while my headlights were pointed away from her. The fawn probably mistook that for a hint that she had not been seen by a potential predator––a car––and was therefore safe.
By the time the lights swung toward her, she had already crossed the center line.
Even though I was driving about five miles an hour below the posted speed limit, and got my foot off the gas pedal, I was unable to hit the brake before I hit her and most likely broke her neck on impact.
She flew 20 feet through the air, hit her head on landing, and was already dead when Beth ran to her side moments later.


The good news
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that 10 minutes later, following some of the same advice below that I have offered for decades about driving with constant awareness of the animal habitat alongside roads, I was able to brake in time to give Beth her first-ever sighting of a rare creeping vole, who scurried across the road unharmed at about half the pace of the typical rodent.
Avoiding animals may not always be possible, but the average driver can save many animal lives by becoming above average in just one respect: recognizing what animals are likely to appear in each place that he or she drives, and correctly anticipating what those animals’ behavior will be when they are startled by an oncoming car.


1) The most important tip of all:
It is easier and safer to anticipate animals in the road than it is to miss them once they are in front of you. Watch for motion in roadside grass and shrubs. Remember that most lines in the woods are vertical. If you see something horizontal, it may be an animal.


2) Usually the safest thing to do, upon suddenly meeting any animal in the road, is to calmly slow down, and if necessary, stop.
Don’t honk or try to outguess the animal, and don’t slam on your brakes. Just slow down as quickly as you can without risking a skid, and stop, if necessary, as gently as you can. Allow the animal time to react and move aside, and proceed with caution.
3) Should you try to rescue an animal from the road, use your car as a shield against oncoming traffic, with your four-way flashers on.
4) Look for the second deer––and the third!
A record 210 Americans were killed in deer/car collisions in 2003, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The annual toll has remained around 200 per year.


Studies indicate that up to 70% of all deer/car crashes occur when a driver slows for one deer, then steps on the gas and hits another. Fawns soon grow as big as their mamas, but continue to follow mama for a year or more. A doe will often have two fawns, so if you see one deer, slow down and look for two more.
5) Be extra careful in hunting season.
In spring and summer, deer hide from danger. In fall, when the leaves are down, they run. More than half of all deer/car collisions occur in October and November.
The rut (mating season) is one cause of this, but the peak for collisions coincides more closely with the peak days for hunting than with the peak of rut.
If you see hunters’ vehicles parked by the road, watch for frightened deer running from gunfire, or hunters driving deer. At night, look for disoriented deer who have been driven out of their home range by hunters, and are trying to find their way back.


6) If you collide with a deer, duck!
Driver deaths tend to result from a deer flying through the windshield after having her legs knocked out from under her. The lower you are, the safer you are when this happens.
7) Don’t waste your time & money––and put animals at risk––by using sonic alarms!
Sonic alarms, such as “deer whistles,” have been around almost as long as cars themselves, but have repeatedly flunked field testing by insurance companies, humane organizations, and others with an interest in preventing roadkills.
The Humane Society of the U.S. has advised since 1989 that the concept itself is unsound, since it flunks the basic premise of operant conditioning, whereby positive response must be rewarded and negative response discouraged.
In the case of sonic alarms, nothing happens if the animal responds positively, and the animal is usually killed if the animal responds negatively.


8) Don’t honk your horn, either!
Sonic alarms, like horn-honking, can actually have harmful effects, and not only by giving a driver a false sense of confidence that he/she can go like a bat out of hell without consideration for animals along the roadside.
For example, the first time a deer or any other animal hears an unfamiliar sound, the animal may freeze––and that might be right in the middle of the road. The second time the animal hears the sound, the animal remembers that nothing bad happened the last time, so pays no more attention to the sonic alarm or the frantic honking than to any of the many other strange sounds that humans make
Bear in mind that a deer (or a dog or a rabbit) can not only hear your car coming from more than a mile away, but can tell whether your radio is on or off.
This is not information that means anything to an animal, so animals do not respond differently whether you are listening to jazz, the news, a talk show, or death metal. Neither do animals respond differently if your car is making one sort of high-or-low-pitched squawk, scream, or thump instead of another.


9) Brake gently for birds.
Many birds cannot rise fast enough to evade an oncoming car without using the air current the car pushes to provide extra lift. If you brake too abruptly for a bird flying straight ahead of you, you may take away the push he needs and send him crashing into your windshield. Lift your foot off the gas and slow down gently, gradually, until the bird rises above your car or peels away to one side.
10) Watch for intoxicated birds!
Birds may fly into the road when close to potentially intoxicating food sources, such as pyracantha berries, any sort of fermenting fruit, or freshly sprayed fields, where dying insects may become a lethal temptation.


11) When you see anything enter the road that a dog might chase, look for the dog!
Several hundred thousand dogs are killed on U.S. roads each year. Most are chasing something–a ball, a child, a cat, a squirrel, a bicyclist or jogger, even the cars that hit them.


12) Cats know cars are dangerous, but make the wrong moves.
Most roadkilled cats are hit at night. Typically cats know cars are dangerous, but appear to confuse the beams from a car’s headlights with the car itself. This may be because outdoor cats are mostly nocturnal, and perceive the danger as being from exposure by the headlights, rather than from being crushed by the tires.


Accordingly, cats usually hunker down in roadside ditches or among vegetation and try to avoid being caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. When the lights go by them, cats think it is safe to dash out––just as the car reaches them. Expect cats to make this mistake and you will be prepared to react if they do.
Cars killed about 5.4 million cats per year in the early 1990s––more than were killed in U.S. animal shelters! Since then both the roadkill toll on cats and the shelter toll have plummeted, to about 500,000 and two million, respectively, but only because the advent of neuter/return programs has markedly reduced the feral cat population.


13) Opossums play possum.
Opossums feast on roadkill, a habit that gets about 8.3 million opossums a year roadkilled. A large object in the road at night may be roadkill plus an opossum, who may either freeze in your headlights or try to run away.
Opossums don’t run very fast, and sometimes play possum in front of cars, pretending to be dead in hopes of not being disturbed. Slow down until you have positively identified any situation involving an opossum.


14) Armadillos jump.
Armadillos “seem similar in habits to opossums,” says Pat Hayes, an ANIMALS 24-7 roadkill prevention tip sheet user who has a lot more experience with them than we do. “They are slow, short-sighted, and cannot run out of the way fast. They seem to be attracted to the grass verges of roads, often several together, and wander onto the highway at night.
“Judging from the roadkills one sees, which are usually intact corpses at the edge of the highway,” Hayes says, “I would guess that most of them are side-swiped because they cannot get out of the way quickly enough. Watch for ‘bumps’ near the road, especially at night. If you see an armadillo, slow down and expect others nearby. You will have to drive around them, particularly on the highway, as they are not fast enough to avoid a moving vehicle.”


(Beth Clifton photo)
Partially contradicts Rea Cord, executive director for the Humane Society of Elmore County in Wetumpka, Alabama, “Armadillos are surprisingly fast––not slow at all when they don’t want to be. Unfortunately, armadillos have an odd, but devastating reaction to fear when it comes to cars. When armadillos are startled they very often spring straight up into the air. Many are killed that way, as a driver tries to straddle them and they spring straight up into the undercarriage.”
15) Rabbits run in circles.
A rabbit scared out of the road by the car ahead of you may circle right back into the road. This is especially likely with varying hares, the rabbit species most often seen throughout the U.S.
A quick tap of your horn as you approach where the rabbit went may freeze him out of harm’s way––but not always.
A rabbit racing out in front of you might also be under pursuit by a fox or coyote, who will usually stop, or a dog, who may not, or a hawk, owl, or eagle, who may already be in mid-strike, at approximately your eye level.


16) Squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits zig-zag.
Squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits are among the hardest species to avoid. All three evade predators, when on the ground, chiefly through their ability to rapidly change directions.
The surest way to avoid a rabbit, chipmunk, or squirrel is to stop and wait until the critter is safely out of the road. As long as you are still moving forward, the rabbit, chipmunk, or squirrel will continue to assess your car as a threat akin to a dog or fox, only bigger, or as a hawk, owl, or eagle, and keep switching and reversing course.
This explains why some fairly extensive studies have discovered that speed is not a factor in killing squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks: they are as likely to get hit by a slow-moving car as one going like a bat out of hell, simply because they zig-zag in the wrong direction, mis-guessing which way the driver will swerve.
Rabbits, and probably squirrels and chipmunks too, will also often wait at a roadside until a car has come too close to stop, then run directly at the car to try to escape underneath it to the presumed safety on the other side. This apparently suicidal behavior actually saves many a rabbit’s life when a hawk, owl, or eagle swoops: once the raptor is committed to a strike path, and is descending too rapidly to change it, the rabbit runs straight toward the swoop so that the bird cannot strike without slowing down, pulling up, and reversing direction, all of which gives the rabbit getaway time.
Unfortunately, cars are supported not by the rush of air beneath wings, but by tires, which unlike a raptor’s talons extend all the way to the ground, and which rabbits often fail to see straight ahead of them because their eyes are set on the sides of their heads.


Fortunately, it is easy to anticipate when you are likely to see rabbit, chipmunk, or squirrel. Rabbits are most plentiful in lightly wooded areas or alongside brushy ditches, from the end of spring through the end of summer. They may be seen either by day or by night. At night they freeze in the glare of headlights.
Chipmunks and squirrels take to the roads in greatest number at the end of summer, when windy weather at the onset of fall tends to litter roadsides with edible nuts. Chipmunks and squirrels will remain plentiful on the roads all year in tree-lined areas where there is no snow cover, and in snow country will continue to appear until after the first snowfall that stays down. They are usually out only in broad daylight.


(Dave Pauli photo)
17) Watch for beavers near culverts.
In spring and early summer young beavers leave their parents to seek their own pond. They move slowly, usually at night, and can be hard to see but if you are driving near wetlands, expect them. They typically try to cross roads at culverts.
18) Raccoons travel in families.
Raccoons often travel in families of up to seven members. If one is hit, the rest may stay beside her and get hit too. Raccoons also scavenge roadkills, so watch for raccoons around any roadkill site.


19) Raccoons often turn to face danger.
Raccoons may respond to an approaching car as they would to a predator they cannot outrun, turning to try to face the threat down, and thereby often stepping into the path of a speeding car.
20) Raccoons, skunks, and porcupines prefer to mind their own business.
If a raccoon, skunk, or porcupine is directly ahead, you will have to stop to let the animal escape.
Otherwise, the safest tactic around raccoons, skunks, and porcupines is to avoid attracting their notice. Don’t jam on the brakes, don’t accelerate; just ease off the gas and cruise on by. Raccoons, skunks, and porcupines who do not feel threatened will just mind their own business.


21) Beware of large dark animals: feral pigs, cattle, bison, horses, elk, moose, and bears.
Feral pigs, cattle, bison, horses, elk, moose, and bears are all most often hit in hilly and partially wooded areas where broken fences are not easily visible and even large animals can be unseen as they cross roads at dips. Dips tend to coincide with streams, which are natural animal corridors.
Feral pigs, cattle, bison, horses, elk, moose and bears are all hard to see at night, because they tend to be dark, and except for pigs, tend to stand above the driver’s visual focus, which will be where the headlights meet the pavement.


If a cow or bison is standing where the headlights meet the pavement, the car will move forward eight to 10 feet before most drivers see the cow, and if a horse, elk, or moose is there, the car may move forward another 12 feet. This markedly reduces stopping time, especially when driving fast.
Car collisions with pigs, cattle, bison, horses, elk, moose, and bears are frequently fatal to the driver. Hitting any of these species results in significant impact; knocking the legs out from under the taller species typically results in the body of the animal going through the windshield of the vehicle, crushing the occupants.
22) Beware of herd behavior.
Cattle and bison will usually break through a fence as a herd. They will stand their ground at the approach of a threat. This increases their likelihood of being hit, if not seen but cattle and bison are predictable, and once one member of a herd starts to move in a given direction, chances are good that they all will.


(Beth Clifton photo)
The responses of horses, elk, and moose are harder to anticipate. Some act like cattle; some bolt like deer.
23) Pigs and bears forage along roadsides at night.
Pigs and bears are often not seen at all, until too late. If you see a dark mass where you should see road, think pig or bear. Fortunately, pigs and bears rarely linger in roads. Pigs, however, often eat acorns alongside roads, and bears forage for berries in roadside ditches. Both pigs and bears may be hit on narrow roads because they are focused on the acorns or berries, not the traffic.


24) Pigs and bears cross roads on the run.
Where traffic is fast and frequent, pigs and bears usually cross roads on the dead run. Females tend to be followed by their offspring, so as with deer, if you see a pig or a bear, look for several more.
25) Frogs like wet weather.
In wet weather, if you are near a pond or ditch and it’s not yet cold, you’ll likely see frogs. Some frog species will freeze in your headlights. Others will just keep hopping. Slow down and try to drive around them.


26) Turtles look like rocks.
If you see a “rock” in the road that looks larger than rocks in roads usually are, or seems to move even just slightly, think “turtle.”
Turtles tend to try to look more like rocks when they perceive danger, by pulling in their heads and legs to hide inside their shells. As most drivers try to avoid hitting rocks, this would seem to be a good survival strategy. However, research by Western Carolina University psychology professor Hal Herzog and Clemson University student Nathan Weaver indicates that about one driver in 50 hits turtles deliberately.


Small wonder, therefore, that roadkills appear to be among the major reasons for drastic declines in turtle populations throughout the U.S.
27) If you stop to rescue the turtle, use your car as a shield against traffic, with four-way flashers on.
Always move the turtle to the side of the road that the turtle is heading toward, as they tend to migrate along rigidly set routes.


28) Coldblooded snakes often warm themselves on roads.
If you see a straight object that looks like a stick in the road, assume it is a snake until you know it isn’t.
Late in the day, as the temperature drops, snakes may go into torpor and be unable to move quickly without help.


(Beth Clifton photo)
29) Watch for falling birds & squirrels.
If trees arch over a road, fledgling birds may fall from nests into the road in late spring. If power lines cross a road, squirrels may fall off while trying to use the wires as a corridor from tree to tree. Animals who fall into roads usually survive the fall itself, only to be hit by cars moments later.
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Great list. I have a few more to add:
One of the best ways to avoid a collision is simply to slow down when animals are most active (dawn, dusk, nightfall). Even driving five miles per hour slower buys you significantly more time and feet to brake.
Avoid driving distracted. It’s tempting to ignore this advice in less populated areas but remember that your vigilance can save animal lives, too.
If you see a person running (who is obviously not a jogger) look for the loose pet they’re chasing.
Watch for eye shine — reflections from animal eyes tend to be aqua/green or red.
Spotting the headlight glimmer in the eye of a large buck, gave me sufficient time to slow down and safely react when he leapt from behind the tree line, across the southbound lanes and into mine. I had been feeling drowsy but, needless to say, after this narrow miss I was wide awake.
This is great advice! My puppy got loose in our neighborhood and darted right out in front of a car (I was chasing him).
Our street is relatively quiet, I never thought he could get that close to cars that fast from our backyard.
The car saw me chasing him and stopped (but didn’t see the puppy until after they stopped).
Our puppy was just a few months old at the time and unharmed.
Excellent additions. I’m surprised the list didn’t begin with driving slower, which is what I came here to add. Thank you for beating me to it, Nevada. Don’t drive so fast! You will also help the environment out by saving gas and not polluting as much.
Also, try to not drive any more than necessary: combine trips and take public transit when possible.
Thank you for this article, very worthwhile!!
Good advice. I have been told many times I have the best eyes in the business for spotting animals on the roadway and shoulders. I was taught when learning to drive that you don’t look straight ahead, you look at the shoulders, behind you, the car will drive straight itself. These days with people on those damn cell phones, you have to worry about cars hitting you.
Thanking you very much for sharing these tips, many of which seem, but often aren’t, universally known. I just read a story about a baby wombat rescued after his mom didn’t survive being HBC. Does anyone have any wombat-specific suggestions as to road safety, I wonder?
Thank you for this excellent list on ways to avoid hitting animals on roads. Please sign, support, and pass on my petition on Care2 :” “Stop Killing Deer on the Roads”. Here is the URL: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/834/723/483/tell-yahoo-deer-arent-rats-and-deer-dont-cause-road-collisons/ Thank you, Elle
Sharing this to social media, with gratitude and surprise that my Moti’s photo is here.
Pay attention! So many animals are killed because people are bemusing their coming day or yesterday or doing something besides using their peripheral vision. If your eyes are constantly looking back and forth at the roadsides, you will have enough warning to brake. If you are doing something else, you are going to kill someone who was just going about his day or night, trying to make a living. Don’t drive with your head up your ass, and you won’t kill anyone. 🙂 I also noticed something that might apply more to women. If I had breakable cargo on my seats, like groceries, I wouldn’t brake as hard as necessary to avoid an animal. I now keep anything that might break if it flew off the seats on the floor, so I have no reservations about hitting the brakes.
I was driving through Tennessee when a mother duck crossed the highway ABOVE a river instead of taking her ducklings under the bridge. She got them to the middle white line (all 8-10 of them) and they were lined up on the line while cars and semis whizzed by. But then she stepped out into traffic and looking in my rearview mirror, I saw them all obliterated. It haunts my memory to this day. If you see a duck in the springtime you should also be looking for a long line of babies. 🙁
Some people actually try to hit animals on the road. Take a look at this experiment in which a man places various rubber model animals on the road and then records driver reactions.
From a New Englander, with regards to moose…. because they are so tall, it is not uncommon for drivers to not see the reflection of their eyes in the headlights at night. Combined with their dark coloring, this can make it vary hard to see them in the dark. Look for breaks in the yellow median line up ahead when driving at night in moose country, it may mean a moose is standing in the middle of the road.
When we moved to Oregon, my dad taught me the best trick: Always aim for the tail end. If you have to make a split second decision which way to swerve to avoid an animal that has jumped in the road in front of you, swerve towards its tail end. They will be moving forward anyway, and you will probably avoid the collision.
Stop hitting animals, please!
Thank you for this very informative article which is always worth re-reading and re-posting. Very moving to see my Moti’s picture here again.
We are continually updating and adding information to “27 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too!”, posting the latest versions as the seasons change, so that users will always have the most current tips.
Excellent article. Thank you. As others have already mentioned, just slow down, especially at night!
In the 90s, or maybe late 80s, I received a free bumper sticker in return for a donation to a humane society, probably the Humane Society of the U.S..
It said, “GIVE WILDLIFE A BRAKE”.
I loved that sticker and I’m happy to say so did a whole lot of other people.
It got huge attention over the years, from all different sorts of people –
My favs were the unlikely ones, tough looking guys I would’ve thought were people to fear. Having that bumper sticker really helped clean up my propensity for indulging in blind assumptions.
I was always getting asked “where these could be gotten.”
I searched over the years and even though they were for a time still on the Humane Society website, my requests were never responded to, and now they are no longer there on the site.
So just last week i had five made at an online make your own bumper sticker site.
They just arrived yesterday,
and here you are with this related article.
I love synchronicity!
Always thankful to read and share this article.
We got some devices that mount on a vehicle’s front on either side of the hood that are supposed to make a sound to warn deer. I don’t know if/how well they worked. One of the main reasons I don’t drive is that I could never handle taking an innocent life with such a huge WMD.
An ancient myth much promoted by hucksters selling useless automotive accessories is that mounting a “deer whistle” on a car can prevent roadkills. Actually deer can hear cars coming from much farther away than people. The issue is not that deer don’t hear cars; it’s that recognizing cars as a threat is learned behavior. “Deer whistles” are just one more sound that a car makes, quite meaningless to a deer until & unless the deer comes to associate the sound with danger — which requires that the deer have already had at least one close call, and could happen with any sound that a car makes, but usually does not happen before the deer gets hit.
Something which may be added to this extensive list and examination of the issue of car strikes on wildlife is this:
To help avoid double tragedies such as killing another animal who is ” feasting on a previous roadkill, such as crows. Eagles, etc. Be a good wildlife Samaritan. If able, pull over, check for traffic, and when all clear, pick up and move the road killed animal off of the road. I carry gloves with me just for that purpose., but even just some car hand sanitizer will do.
Several weeks ago, in the wee morning hours I pulled an intact 50 lb. Male dead porcupine from the middle of a highway, off to the bushes.
I am so sorry about the deer. Sharing again to social media, with hope.
Very good article, rich with information and food for thought.
CP/RT again to social media, because people need to know these points and hopefully avoid losses of innocent life and even their own. What with people multitasking and driving distracted, this article is more timely than ever. Thank you.
Thank you Merritt and Beth as this is excellent and should be included in all driver manuals!
Sadly in this day and age people just don’t seem to care anymore…the older I get the more disgusted I become…and I’m no spring chicken 😉 as always excellent article…
Can’t share this too much. Thanking all responsible. *Please put the phones away while driving. Don’t drive distracted. LIVES depend on it. Maybe even YOURS.*
Thanks for such an informative piece. With driver ed in schools, driver safety courses offered voluntarily for lowering insurance rates & often required by courts & motor vehicle tests for licensing, there has never even been lip service given to including animal/car collision prevention education. Despite more & more roads, drivers & ongoing development displacing animals into necessarily crossing roads. Go figure. Of all the politicians in every State Govt. not one has thought to add this to increasing driver safety, even if not in deference to all the non-human victims. With roadkill primarily still treated as a joke, for as long as I can remember. If just one state would lead, others would join.
It’s estimated that ONE MILLION animals are killed on American highways every day–an appalling statistic.
As noted, SLOW DOWN, PEOPLE! Esp. at night, dawn and dusk.
And follow Barry Lopez’s example: Stop the car and take the time to remove dead animals from the highway, and bury them if possible. Seems the least we owe them.
ANIMALS 24-7 recommends removing road-killed animals from traffic lanes, if one can do so safely, blocking oncoming vehicles with one’s own vehicle, with four-way flashers on, and then leaving the remains exposed at a safe distance from the roadway, for consumption by predator/scavengers. Hawks, owls, eagles, crows, ravens, and vultures rely upon roadkill for much of their sustenance, as do coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and even opossums. Each dead creature they find is a living animal whom these predator/scavengers will not have to hunt and kill. Meanwhile, the presence of predator/scavengers scouting roadside ditches for remains helps to deter other animals from approaching the traveled lanes.
Years ago I successfully saved a very worn out white female dog. She was trotting fast totally oblivious to danger. She was trotting down one lane of a two lane highway, u-turning, and trotting back in the other lane. Back and forth she went. This was in front of a school with a large grassy area. It was also at dusk. I have a physical handicap and was in the middle of the road trying to keep the dog from being hit and trying to stop a car with people who could chase her down. I tossed a young man a slip lead, and he successfully retrieved her. What was wrong with this dog??? She was wearing a cheap collar with a shocker in it to keep her at home. She was afraid of grass, so she had to run on pavement. A motorcycle missed her by inches. I’m not certain if she went home or was adopted. She went to a no-kill shelter. She wasn’t injured, but she was exhausted.
Re-sharing to socials after a review, with gratitude and hope.
Shouldn’t the title be “29 ways…?”
(Squirrels are my faves. I always see them cautiously looking in both directions – including standing on their hind legs to get a better view – and waiting for traffic to clear before hurrying across. They’d probably be better drivers than most people!)
Actually it should be “29 ways.” But we started with “27 ways,” then added tips and went to “28 ways” and “29 ways,” & along the way became aware that constantly changing the title was confusing people & requiring more & more redirects. So now we’re back to “28 ways,” with a 29th tip as a bonus.
Great list..I would add to amend the comment about not using your horn.
Agreed that it is a bad idea to use that car horn to alert or scare the animals on it near the road…
However…
It is a great practice to use your car horn loudly and forcefully to attract the attention of those morons who are passing you, hell bent on hitting that animal that you have managed to avoid.
Many many drivers who are willing to completely ignore things like hazard lights etc..will have a Pavlovian response to a loudly honking car horn, that is if they don’t have the stereo cranked up or headphones on.
I have used this technique to get the attention of cars trying to speed by after spotting a doe crossing inevitably to be followed by a timid fawn or two.
Up until COVID I did an 80 mile round trip on rural highways 5 days a week and have done so for 20 years. Knock wood, I’m an expert on avoiding collisions with animals (including humans), so here are a couple of additions you might be interested in.
Be extra cautious the first couple of days after that time changes – animals get used to the normal traffic patterns and I’ve noticed a marked increase in road kill the days after the time changes.
During the fall rut bucks and elk bulls can be so exhausted they may be slowly walking across the road at any time, head down and unaware of traffic, and they won’t react by bounding out of the way like they normally would.
If you see an animal, turn down your high beams, and if you have those ‘over-bright’ headlights, get them replaced! Both people and animals can’t see squat when facing those things – including folks in oncoming cars – so you can help someone else avoid a collision by lowering your lights. I have only hit one animal in all my miles of fast highway, and that was due to either high beams or their over-bright headlights. I was driving my old pickup hauling a heavy trailer facing blinding lights and neither my passenger nor I saw the BIG buck WALKING right to left in front of us until it was directly in front of the right side of the truck. My passenger gasped just as I started to tried to move my foot to brake, but it was too late. Killed the poor thing outright. If I had been in my car, not my truck, my passenger would have died for sure and maybe me as well.
Because of the over-bright lights, in the last several years folks have started walking facing AWAY from traffic on the local highway. The highway has no shoulder so they’re walking right next to the white line, usually in dark clothing. If you see something, lower your brights. If you can’t lower your lights and people keep flashing their lights at you asking you to, there’s a problem.
If you are driving on hilly roads, take care when you crest a hill. Someone killed two large elk bulls (and probably themselves) in daylight on that same highway I mentioned above, right below the crest of a hill the vehicle had just crested.
In wooded areas, be extra alert if you’re driving near construction sites, active or recent logging operations. Animals get disoriented when their normal routes are blocked or obliterated and may end up bolting onto the roadways.
If you see loose dogs running ‘with intent’ anywhere, be cautious, they may be chasing something that will end up in the road in front of you (and please don’t let your dog loose to run ‘in the country’).
And please, please slow down for animals, humans, humans with animals, and anything odd you see on the road. I’ve seen so much death out there.
I came across your page on the damages involved with collisions of animals: 28 ways to avoid hitting animals that may save your life too!.
I’m reaching out because a website I’m currently supporting has published an infographic of the roadkill hotspots across the globe. I thought this article (comparethemarket.com.au/car-insurance/roadkill-hotspots) nicely supports and compliments some of the points you’ve made in yours.