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Why is there always so much roadkill!

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CT has this problem, when I was driving down a 30 mile stretch of 395 South around memorial day I saw FIFTEEN deer carcasses. WTF???
 
Around here, if the deer appears to have a lot of salvageable meat, someone will pick up the carcass pretty quickly. A few police I know have short lists of people they'll call who will use the meat.
 
You can't do anything about it sometimes. Animals will do the stupidest shit because they have no idea how cars work. I've seen squirrels that were safely across the road suddenly stop and double back, running under a cars wheels. And deer just jump out of nowhere. I've been lucky I haven't hit anything, but I've had tons of close calls even though I pay attention.

That's why moose are so fucking scary, they'll kill you because you chop their legs out from under them and then their massive body falls on top of the cab crushing everyone inside. If its a choice between one of those and a tree...well, the tree is less likely to fall on you!
 
I hate the feeling of driving on the interstate at night and seeing lots of deer right next to the road on the inside grassy area. On our vacations, we're always running behind so it's always late. So I slow down a bit but don't want to slow down too much since I'm trying to get there before I get too tired to drive. Although it's scary seeing them, so it tends to keep you awake. Too bad they don't have fences everywhere to prevent this.
 
Fences are ugly and if not high enough, a deer will just jump over it. They can clear a 5 foot fence easily.
 
DrPizza said:
Around here, if the deer appears to have a lot of salvageable meat, someone will pick up the carcass pretty quickly. A few police I know have short lists of people they'll call who will use the meat.
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I was with a friend a few years ago in MA and we hit one. we braked but it was a snow covered dirt road and we slid into one right as it jumped out. missed the first 2. mimimal damage to car (IE none) killed the deer. we were quite surprised when the cop asked us if we wanted to keep it, we did, had it butchered and such in the morning
 
Slickone said:
I hate the feeling of driving on the interstate at night and seeing lots of deer right next to the road on the inside grassy area. On our vacations, we're always running behind so it's always late. So I slow down a bit but don't want to slow down too much since I'm trying to get there before I get too tired to drive. Although it's scary seeing them, so it tends to keep you awake. Too bad they don't have fences everywhere to prevent this.
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I am more gun shy than ever about seeing/not seeing deer that could potentially dart out in front of me and cause EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of damage to my vehicle.
 
Slickone said:
I hate the feeling of driving on the interstate at night and seeing lots of deer right next to the road on the inside grassy area. On our vacations, we're always running behind so it's always late. So I slow down a bit but don't want to slow down too much since I'm trying to get there before I get too tired to drive. Although it's scary seeing them, so it tends to keep you awake. Too bad they don't have fences everywhere to prevent this.
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I think it would have to be a pretty high fence...deer are actually pretty good jumpers.
 
I managed to hit 2 dog's in one night, was during a snow storm, had to pick my sister up from work, hit one on the way into town, one on the way home. I also managed to hit a deer once.....

Most popular roadkill seems to be possums, raccoons and skunks in our area with the occasional cat.
 
I'm very aware of my surroundings and drive just as fast as anyone else and I have not once hit an animal no matter how many times they crossed the road, I was never close to endangering anyone else either. So the excuse that its just luck is bullshit. It's skill and not luck.

A lot of people are bad drivers and don't want to admit their poor abilities to react properly to situations. I understand there are some situations that are just unavoidable but this is not generally the case.
 
Animals tend to run into me more than I run into them. On my bicycle once at college a squirrel ran into my rear wheel. I felt a thump, not a bump, so I think it survived. Then later a black bear ran into the front side of my car at night. (A black bear at night is really hard to see!) There was no blood, so I think it survived too, but it dented my fender and hubcap good.
 
Seen plenty of skunk, squirrel, foxes, deer, and pets on the road. Only animal I ever "hit" was a raccoon...and by hit I mean it weaved into the frame bar under my car and went rolling into the ditch. It was fairly comical and I'm pretty sure it survived, I couldn't find it later.

Moose are intimidating, DON'T EVER honk at one. I've seen pictures of resulting semi-rigs that were demolished...not pretty.

Hitting a skunk that's already dead...probably worse than actually hitting it the first time.
 
I see a lot of roadkill here, too. People driving too fast at night is what causes a lot of it. I haven't run over any animal yet, though squirrels have been close calls a couple of times. Good thing they are fast.

There are many, many deer in my area, but I can spot them quickly and I keep well under the speed limit at night since there are no street lights on the hill road leading up to my house.
 
I grew up in a rural area and roadkill was common. I look out for deer and larger animals. Smaller ones I don't worry about.


Ken g6 said:
Animals tend to run into me more than I run into them. On my bicycle once at college a squirrel ran into my rear wheel. I felt a thump, not a bump, so I think it survived. Then later a black bear ran into the front side of my car at night. (A black bear at night is really hard to see!) There was no blood, so I think it survived too, but it dented my fender and hubcap good.
Click to expand...

I was biking one time near my university and going down a hill fairly fast. We have Canadian geese on campus and when I was going down hill a goose decided to fly towards me and I hit it. I was unable dodge it because it took off fairly close to me. The goose was fine but I was sore for the rest of the day.
 
I saw a whole family of elk killed by a semi a couple of months a go. A bunch of mama elk and calves tried to cross the interstate, they almost made it to their feeding ground.
 
Had a few close calls, but never hit anything. While animals can be unpredictable and it's not always the driver's fault, proper driving, staying the speed limit, being alert can contribute to lowering your chance of hitting an animal.

Here if you hit something it will either be a small animal like a porcupine or chipmunk, but if it's your bad day, it can also be a moose.
 
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