How often have you seen a dead animal on the highway and thought how can people be so careless? Or, given the animal's position on the road, somebody must have deliberately hit it.
I've found out at least six times that sometimes these collisions are hard to avoid. In fact, sometime one's attempt at avoidance is counterproductive. I tried avoidance today in a small town at less than 35mph and left behind roadkill.
I have hit at least two birds, two squirrels, and two deer. And of course, thousands of insects.
The birds are the hardest to avoid. They swoop in front of one's car generally making it across or being carried by the airstream over the roof. Once, one bird clipped my car just above the windshield. Another time, a bird slammed into my radiator.
One deer walked across the highway right in front of my truck as if I weren't even there. It was dark and on a curve, and I didn't see her until she was in the opposite lane. One dead deer and $800 damage. Another kept changing its mind and would skid around to the opposite direction. I heard it click along the side of my truck. I could find no deer at the side of the road and could not even detect a scratch on the side of my truck.
Squirrels change direction more times than that deer did. I couldn't figure out how to avoid either of the two squirrels that I knowingly hit. In both cases I saw the squirrel bound across the street, and I slowed down. The squirrel would start back the way it came, change its mind and be between my tires, change its mind twice more, and then slam into or be hit by the passenger-side tires. As I looked behind, there was a gray corpse on the shoulder.
