Road Kill

A couple weeks ago I was hit by a pheasant on my way to work in the Mini. The bird was halfway in my driver's side window (RHD car) and totally broke my side view mirror. That cost me a few bucks to get new mirrors. Had to replace both sides since the ones I had on there came from an MGB in a junkyard in Virginia.

Sunday evening traveling on the same road in our van a raccoon made a run right in front of us. I was only able to tap the brake pedal and he was across the road safely.

This morning on my way to work in the WRX I encountered a suicidal raccoon. For whatever reason, nearly every raccoon I see up here in MN is fairly giant in size. This guy comes out of the grass on the side of the road at a full sprint. I tried to avoid him, but it ended up more like leading him. I hit him with the front passenger side. The impact removed the brake duct vent, the fog light surround, some little trim piece by the outside corner of the grill, and broke my bumper. Not sure what else is broken yet. I know the inner fender is loose. Since it was pitch black out still I continued on to work. The bumper cover itself snapped back into place, but the broken bottom edge of it is bent back and dragging on the ground. On the way home I stopped at the scene of the crime and recovered the three missing pieces of my car. All were off the road on the shoulder, none had been ran over, and only one has any real damage. So it looks like I am just out a new bumper cover.

I'm glad it was a 40lb raccoon and not a deer. Now I can stop wondering why people have SUVs. If I was driving an SUV or truck that sucker may have gotten a tire instead of taking out half of the front of my car.

I hope my near miss with the van counts towards my bad things happen in threes. I guess I'll drive the miata tomorrow and see how I fair. I almost tore into it last weekend for a timing belt change, but decided to wait 2 weeks.

I was on my motorcycle the other day and I almost hit a red tailed hawk with my face. I saw it coming, there wasn't much that I could do.

Here's a pic of the car from my phone. That piece folded under in the bottom edge of the bumper. It broke and bent back. There are some other loose plastic things in there as well, but I think that is just the under tray cover that is a little loose. I didn't take a good look at it all yet. I'll see if I can't leave work earlier tomorrow and get under the car. Here's the recovered pieces from the side of the road safely in my garage....not too much worse for wear. Some scuffs and one broken tab. There are some raccoon hairs on the brake duct vent.

shame you did not shatter the smaller, easy to replace items, and left the bumper cover untouched...

years ago I hit a beagle with my Ti and did similar damage.. literally wound up screwing a broomhandle to the backside of the bumper to keep it in one piece till I get the new one painted and on the car

I had a friend who was on a motorcycle trip up in Wisconsin when a smaller black bear ran out and into him knocking him off his bike. When he got up he noticed that the bear had been knocked unconscious and was lying on the road about 50 feet away. Fortunately he had installed leg bars and the right one had been bent back at a 45 degree angle. The bar had apparently clipped the bear. As he was righting his bike the bear woke up looked at him and ran back into the woods. Basically a happy ending. The bike had minimal damage as still ran. My friend was banged up but basically in one piece and the bear was the most shocked and ran off leaving everyone alone. See it could be worse.

mad_machine wrote: shame you did not shatter the smaller, easy to replace items, and left the bumper cover untouched... years ago I hit a beagle with my Ti and did similar damage.. literally wound up screwing a broomhandle to the backside of the bumper to keep it in one piece till I get the new one painted and on the car

was going to say the same thing. Sadly that bumper is expensive, I think my employee pricing when I worked at subaru was something like $350 unpainted. (I priced one for a friend of mine who killed his in a pothole)

Wife hit a coon last year. Somehow, it got wrapped around the axle. Tore out the fender liner, the CV boot, ABS cable, brake line and some other things. Shesh, what a mess!

Tis funny the different ways critters will respond to vehicles. My truck for example, deer seem to love it. Whenever I see them, they are moving towards me. In the cars, they are moving away. Haven't hit one yet in the truck, but it's just a matter of time.

I finally hit a deer a few weeks ago with my TDI. I've been driving through infested deer country for the past 11+ years, so I figured it was only a matter of time before I hit one of the bastards...

Punched the little thing slightly off center with the car - took out one of the lower grill pieces, the upper grill and slightly tweaked the hood latch release. Fortunately, it was just a small fawn, so it wasn't too bad. As I was braking to a stop the thing was spinning horizontally on its side then spun off the side of the road into a mile marker post. It was kinda surreal.

My wife hit a Groundhog in the Rondo once. Pushed the bumper cover up and slipped inside damaging the rad, support and some other stuff before dropping back out and going under the car. She chose not to tell me about this until the car was in the shop due to some issues it suddenly developed. You couldn't see the damage until it was on the lift. "OH, perhaps it was that Groundhog I hit last week?" Grrrrrrrrr.

T.J. wrote: For whatever reason, nearly every raccoon I see up here in MN is fairly giant in size.

Ain't that the truth. Raccoons up north are easily double the size of the ones in the south. I can recall a few that justified an escort and 'wide load' banner to cross the road. Squirrels too - I remember squirrels the size of house cats. Down south they are puny little things.

Spring and fall are prime time for animal strikes - slow down and use your high beams whenever you can. You don't have to love animals to understand the benefit of not hitting them.

My uncle once hit a moose in Maine with a full-size Wagoneer. Totaled the Jeep. The moose shrugged it off.

I remember hitting one squirrel three times. Got him with the front tyre, rather than staying on the road, he stuck to the tyre and went around for a second time.. and then I got him with the rear.

Took the bumper cover off tonight. There is a missing chunk along the bottom edge under the fog light. It is cracked up by the headlight and along the edge on the side. The inner fender liner is broken where it mounts to the car in the front and it has an 8 in^2 area or so where it was rubbing on the tire and is now worn through.

I think I can salvage the inner fender with some crafty use of random plastic from the recycle bin and some glue. I am working on a temporary bumper cover repair as well. I am heading up to Cuyuna Lakes this weekend for some Mountain biking and need to have some semblance of a bumper before then. I'm hoping I can make this one work at least through the winter since the WRX is my winter car. Maybe I'll buy a new bumper in the spring or see if I can score one on Craigslist.

hit a LARGE ground hog with the F150 the other day .... little bit of blood and body parts to wash off ... that was all

Only hit one animal so far, it was either a small chicken or guinea bird on a residential street, I tried to dodge it about 4 times but it kept walking right into the path of the tire until I finally ran it over (I would have come to a complete stop if I knew it was that dumb).

to the OP: get on the throttle next time, maybe lift the nose enough to avoid body damage.

and don't swerve. the instantaneous contact patch change from hitting the moving obstacle during a high-g maneuver can make things go from bad to worse but quick. risk your life to save a raccoon? berkeley no.

I took out a possum with the front wheel of my motorcycle a number of years back. Sickly squish sound and my boots and lower pants legs were covered with blood spots. It was a truly horrendous feeling. I had a bird stick under a parked wiper once.

I biggest scare though was when trailering my Norton down to bike week in Daytona (yeah, wimp). I was in the left lane of I-95 with a car in the right lane, the middle lane was empty. 4-6 deer passed between the two cars while we were moving at well over 60 MPH. I clipped one and took out a running/direction light. Nothing severe, and I think they missed the other car entirely. Worst part is I couldn't really do much but hang on at that speed with a trailer.

Jack

Recently I was rolling on some back roads in the Zx2. A rabbit for no reason darted out in front of me. I heard a thump and saw his little body flip-flop down the road behind me. I really hate hurting animals, but hey, I gave a coyote or mountain lion a free meal. Made me feel a little better.

A bird flue in to the spoked wheels (old style chrome spoke wheels) of my CB550 years back. I was doing about 45-50 MPH. The explosion of feathers and bird guts was quite impressive. (I was covered in bird parts, blood and who knows what else) It was either a black bird or a small crow. What a mess. Pulled over to try to wipe some of it off my face mask and a LEO pulled up (he had been following me) He was laughing so hard he was almost in tears. I joined him and we both got a good laugh at my expense

Next is what I like to call "Skunk Carma"

I hit a skunk on the way to work one day. Heard the usual thump thump and just held my breath waiting for the stink but it never came. On the way home from work it started to rain. When I got to where I had it the skunk it was still there and its wonderful stink had mixed with the rain water and was all over the road betting mixed up and kicked up in the road spray off the other cars. Every car that went through there was getting covered with the stuff. It absolutely stunk. When I got home I parked the car at the end of the driveway out by the road as it really stunk. I did not drive that car for more than a month as it took that long for the stench to ware off.

I think that was skunk carma at work.

I had a oncoming semi hit a deer and throw it into the side of my old civic. What a freaking mess!

I also nailed a pheasant in my old warlock, the first one flew and where there is one there are two so I kept waiting for it as I came up to the spot and it never flew until I got there. Took out my grill and radiator. Oh well, junkyards had parts in them back then.

chandlerGTi wrote: I had a oncoming semi hit a deer and throw it into the side of my old civic. What a freaking mess!

That reminds me of a truck mechanic I was talking to. Master cyl must have gone out on the truck and the driver didn't want to power shift it, so the mechanic took the helm. As he was driving down the highway, a deer ran out towards him and jumped JUST in time to catch the front of the van and pong back and fourth between the cab and van before being shot all over the side of the van. Talk about nasty. Now that I've got that image in your head....

I remember once hitting a huge turkey that hopped off a building onto a two-lane road, in front of my S13. I tried to brake but could not swerve to avoid it because there was guardrail on one side and traffic in the left lane. THUD! There was a huge explosion of feathers. I pulled into a parking lot (no shoulder) to inspect the damage, and saw that the turkey was stuck head-first in the intake with its legs sticking out like the S13 was eating it!

A nearby cop saw what happened and drove over to see if I was OK, and when he saw the turkey sticking out the bumper he laughed his ass off! He lent me some rubber gloves from his first-aid kit and we yanked the turkey out of the bumper and tossed the carcass into a field. That was nasty.

>RexSeven wrote:

I remember once hitting a huge turkey that hopped off a building onto a two-lane road, in front of my S13. I tried to brake but could not swerve to avoid it because there was guardrail on one side and traffic in the left lane. THUD! There was a huge explosion of feathers. I pulled into a parking lot (no shoulder) to inspect the damage, and saw that the turkey was stuck head-first in the intake with its legs sticking out like the S13 was eating it!

A nearby cop saw what happened and drove over to see if I was OK, and when he saw the turkey sticking out the bumper he laughed his ass off! He lent me some rubber gloves from his first-aid kit and we yanked the turkey out of the bumper and tossed the carcass into a field. That was nasty.

it didn't jump <blockquote

Wild turkeys CAN fly, albeit in short bursts. It could also have been a turkey vulture, but it was kind of hard to make out what was left of the bird besides its legs and a mangled mess of blood and feathers.

/I don't get that reference.
//I know, I know. I'm stepping off your lawn...

back in the olden days (1991 or thereabouts..) i got my mom's 86 Mustang on 2 wheels when i hit a big racoon.. did no damage to the car..

i took out a whole flock of sparrows with my 80 Malibu- there was a sparrow wedged in every little nook and cranny of the grille, and about 10 of them under the radiator..

hit an owl with my 76 Monte Carlo.. the wingspan was wider than my car..

hit a skunk dead on with my 76 Vega.. it didn't stink up the car, but it did get hit by the low hanging headers and the smell of cooking flesh was almost unbearable for a few days.

took out a family of racoons with my 97 Cavalier- just barely missed the mama, but got all 5 of her babies.. i was lucky on that one- i damn near swerved to try to avoid them, but i figured a few less garbage can scavengers in an area that is overrun with them could only be a good thing.

Dog on the freeway driving with my Dad late night in the rain. Hit it hard doing about 70mph, checked the car out, went back to make sure the dog wasn't suffering, but it was gone. The front grill and bumper of the pickup were damaged but the radiator was intact.

I also hit a racoon last time I went to my moms, I know I hit it but there wasn't a carcass in the road so maybe it lived. I kind of doubt it but who knows.