My sister has a friend who 10 years ago swerved to avoid a squirrel. She came out of the coma 3 months later and still battles complications from the accident. I love animals and I would do what I could to avoid harming one, but this is beyond dumb. I hope they find her, I hope they charge her and that her insurance company drops her like a hot potato, after they've paid the claims.

What an idiot. Thankfully, no one had to die for her stupidity.

Never ever swerve to avoid hitting anything in the roadway! It will only increase the carnage. Most likely your vehicle is designed for front end impacts (to protect you) not rollovers or side impacts.

Stopping in the roadway is just plain stupid, there is absolutely no reason to come to a complete stop in a lane of potentially moving traffic. None!

I lost a perfectly good car in an exactly similar situation on the Nimitz Freeway in the SF Bay area in 1976, except that what the idiot had stopped to rescue was a stray dog loose on the freeway at rush hour.

My only real memories of the incident are of the rear bumper of a '70 Chevy one-ton pickup approaching at speed, and of the doofus going around afterward telling everybody that he was oh, so sorry. Fortunately I wasn't compos enough to drive my fire extinguisher through his teeth.

I have no idea what happened to him. If other experience is any clue, he went to his grave bragging about his perfect driving record.

Regards,
Ric

The lack of consideration is all over the place. In Hawaii my ranch is near a 55mph highway and its incredible the amount of people who stop on it with their doors open to look at a sunset.

But I've seen the idiots do the stray dog thing often enough too...

You know.. that is why we have shells.. hit us and we duck in side.. go for a ride.. and get where we are going anyway

When I used to live in Iowa there were always stories of people being killed or seriously injured because they swerved to miss a deer. Instead of wrinkling a fender or hood these idiots would put their car in a ditch, swerve into oncoming traffic, roll their car, etc., and end up seriously injuring/killing themselves and sometimes others.

Idiocy knows no bounds. Probably a member in good standng of PETA.

As an aside, it is probably best to hit the animal and take the damage to your vehicle, insurance-wise. An impact with an animal is covered under comprehensive (other than collision) coverage. This is the same coverage used for windshield dings and tree branches falling on your car, etc. If you go into the ditch, or hit a tree, or another car, the coverage used is collision. What's the difference? Most companies consider comprehensive losses as not-at-fault and do not charge for them. However, a collision loss, when there is no other party clearly at-fault, will be charged.

Consider: you are driving down the road, dodge a deer and hit a tree. The deer gets away fine, but your car is mangled. Absent evidence that there was a deer there in the first place, a company will consider this an at-fault accident. You may have lost control of the car; you may have been drunk; you may have had a seizure; etc. But if you have some fur and blood on the bumper, you hit an animal and it's not chargeable. Hit the critter.

Gamora, friend of all children, say it ain't so!

Sing it with me, boys and girls.

Gamora is really neat
He is filled with turtle meat
We all love you Gamora

I saw that turtle yesterday while I was driving on 93 just north of salem. (It was in the slow lane)

I should have run it over, could have saved a lot of trouble for people later on.

Always hit the deer - free venison!

(Seriously, my family had obtained quite a bit of meat using this method. Kinda scary in a way.)

Just remember, if that is an armadillo ahead of you, and you cannot stop safely, steer so the wheel goes over the beast. Armadillos have a flight reflex to jump when they are startled. If you steer so that the 'dillo is between the wheels, it will jump when the car goes over it. Imagine what a football would do to you engine mounting if it is thrown against it at 55mph (assuming you are *just* going 55 in armadillo country). At 70 mph, hope you have a cell phone, because you are going to need to call a tow truck.

I taught my step kids and I follow one rule when it comes to animials on the road: If it smaller than a cow run over it.