What do you do if you hit a wild animal on the road?

I’d definitely try to find out if the animal was dead or alive. Whether the animal was dangerous or not would determine if I got out of my car. Animals that may usually not bite or be dangerous, can be when they’re injured. I wouldn’t want to leave an animal that’s been injured to die in pain. I’m lucky not to have ever had to deal with this and I hope I never have to. Once I’d tried to determine if it’s alive or dead, I’d call an animal rescue organisation to try to get the live animal help. If it was dead, and it was a marsupial, I’d check for babies and then the local council if it was dead. It would need removing to avoid causing further safety problems.

I’ve never really thought about this living in San Diego. I don’t really know the rules to this either. Well if I were coming from the east and I accidentally hit a deer, I suppose I could call 9/11 and have them send animal service?

Been there. Done that.
While on the parkway a deer jumped out from the tall grass right in front of me. It was a direct hit that cut the deer in half and did over $3000 in damage. I had to call 911.
Part of the deer went over the car; part went under; and some was in the radiator. Yuk.

I would keep driving I hit a koala at night and thought it was dead, went to have a look and it clawed the shit out of my hand, then ran off.

ALways call the conservation dept for deer, bears, wild cats, etc… You break the law otherwise.

I always check on them. I’ve dragged other people’s road kill off the road, too (2 dead deer, so far). I also slit the throat of a deer that someone else had hit after Animal Control didn’t show up for over an hour – she was suffering horribly.

I had a happier ending when I came upon a half grown fawn in the turn lane late one night – she’d been hit and was standing stunned, nonresponsive. I stopped my car in the turn lane with my hazard lights on and picked her up and moved her off the side of the road (she was about 60 lbs). I moved my car out of the road and pulled in behind her and she walked off into the woods. I’d like to think that she did ok.

I squished a rabbit once. Bad timing. I did not stop – there was no question about whether he was alive or not.

Several years ago, I almost hit a deer in the middle of the road – I had to veer to the left quickly because he wasn’t moving. I think I missed him by a foot or so, and fortunately there was no oncoming traffic.

I have a friend who did run straight into a deer north of Baltimore, on a side road. Deer died, as did her car. Thousands of dollars of front end damage.

I live out in the country. So far, I’ve gotten a deer, a coyote, a fox, too many rabbits to count, squirrels, and birds. I say a prayer for their spirits if they’re dead. I’ve had to dispatch a few too. That sucks. Just be careful, they are wild animals. And I got a dog one night. I couldn’t find his owner. :(

I live (and have lived most of my life) in a city. There are two life-preserving rules that I follow:

1. Don’t beep the car horn (with precious few exceptions).
2. Don’t get out of the car (with precious few exceptions).

Thank God I have not hit any substantial animal… but if I did, I would have to look around and assess my surroundings and safety. I would err of the side of not leaving my vehicle.

I once ran over a baby deer that ran out of weeds as tall as it was. We went back, and there was no doubt it was dead.

Someone hit a deer out front of our house and it was still alive. Managed to drag itself ½ way up the bluff beside the house. Deputy was a wuss, and the S/O had to take his gun and put the animal out of its misery.

@Adirondackwannabe – do you own a copy of this ?

No, but it sounds like I probably should.

@ibstubro We dispatched them with a hammer. And no, it wasn’t nice.:(

Here in Tennessee you can recoup some of the damage caused by a deer hit. It’s legal to have the deer prepped and processed. A freezer full of meat is not the best trade for a damaged vehicle but at least it’s something.

Up here in B.C Mule deer are almost like vermin I see five to 8 dead along the highway per day when working, and in twenty some years I have hit 6 myself,and only one did damage to the front of my truck, the rest were knocked well off the road.
Clipped a Moose last winter but he was OK scared the crap out of me, when an animal looks at you over the hood of a transport.
Two dogs, one cat, and a pickup truck box liner,that really freaked me out,was late and had on coming traffic and saw something the size of a milk cow dead in front of me, hit it at 100kph sounded like a bazooka and not a scratch on my rig, I radioed back and asked a truck behind me if he knew what I hit, he told me I murdered a box liner.and thats all I got.

If it’s not large enough to damage my vehicle, I drive on. Coyotes, magpies and crows need to eat, too. If it’s large enough to damage my vehicle, I sit there and wait for a wrecker. I would probably drag the larger carcass out of the road because the next guy who comes along may not see me sitting there, or care, and run over the animal again squishing guts and gore all over me.

I would go back and check to see if it was dead.

It may sound sad, but if it were a small animal and it were thrashing about, in agony, I would run it over and finish it off.

While waiting at a stop sign for a pick-up truck to pass, a deer bounded out of the woods and smashed into the driver’s side of the vehicle. The impact snapped off the side view mirror, plus other damage. The driver pulled over and got out. I pulled up in front of him and asked if he was okay. Other than visibly shaken, he was. He asked what he should do. I suggested that he contact his insurance company and take photos for evidence, including the deer, which was on the side of the road, but still alive. I gave him my business card in case he needed a witness testimony for insurance purposes.

This didn’t seem like a scene worth calling 911, but I was worried about the deer getting up and dashing back out in the road. The police dept. was just a block away, so I told the guy I was going to drive up there and report it. Went back to check on the guy, and he was calmer. The deer was gone. I still wonder about how it turned out for both the animal and the driver.

@jca That doesn’t sound sad. It sounds humane.

Luckily, I have only hit one large animal. It was a deer. I was going about 40mph and she leapt out of the woods. I called 911 because my insurance requires a police report to put in a claim for deer damage.

I got out to check on her and she was close to gone. I don’t carry a firearm and couldn’t put her out of her misery. The state trooper was there within 5 minutes and I asked if he would do it after I left. He said yes, and I drove home via a route that would not pass the scene.

The deer I hit was a small one. There was an adult deer laying dead in the road, hit previously. I was driving at 55 and went a little wide to go around the dead deer. He/she came running out of the high grass at a dead run. I never even had time to lift. Apparently it was her fawn, hiding near it’s mother’s body, and it panicked when it heard me coming. it nailed the bumper and was instantly killed. There was a friend of mine that is a city cop behind me. He had the sheriffs department on his speed dial. So if you see an adult deer down watch out.

I was once nearly rammed by a large deer – a buck – during the fall rut in Wisconsin.

I had left the house for work early one morning, a little after dawn. We lived away in the country then, but along a main secondary highway. I was gaining speed after turning onto the highway, and had not quite hit 50 mph, when I saw a large, fast, brown blur off to my left, nearly paralleling my own line of travel. This thing was gaining on me (especially as I took my foot off the gas to see what was going on), and as I turned to look at it squarely, I saw that it had changed course, lowered its head, and was planning to ram my truck square on my door. I hit the brakes and watched as a large buck – maybe ten points, but I wasn’t counting! – charged with its head down and just missed my front bumper as I came to a stop. Fortunately, it decided to keep on going into the woods on the other side of the road.

Other than that, the occasional squirrel, and a bird once. When I hit a small wild animal like that in traffic, I never stop as the danger from the unexpected stop is more likely to cause additional problems, and following cars will dispatch a badly wounded animal in short order. Otherwise, I’ve stopped to move the victim off the road, and to deal a killing blow once or twice.

I’ve had other close calls with deer, but never another with one that was going to hit me.

You want to talk about horrendous!

About 6 on a Sunday morning were on the 4 lane interstate headed to the flea market. It was dawn, and there was a heavy fog. We see a large black lump in the road, then flashing tail lights on the side of the road. Turns out a herd of cattle had made it out of the fence, and were crossing the highway in near zero visibility. There were 4–5 dead cows and maybe another dozen milling. Everyone (people and cows) was oblivious to the carnage because of the fog. There were more cars pulled off then cows dead. It was horrible…thank the gourd I was not driving.

@Ibstubro Always better to drive slow on country roads right? Could be a kid, dog, deer, drunk who knows.

This was Hwy 61/64 in Mid Mo, @KNOWITALL. MAJOR highway. Scared the spit out of me!