How Often Are Animals An Issue?

I hit a deer earlier this year, no I'm sorry, a deer hit me earlier this year in Mississippi. It was almost a surreal experience I saw it coming my way and there was very little I could have done to avoid it without swerving or changing several lanes. The safest thing for me to do was slow down a little without slamming on the brakes, and hold my lane. Of course it was all recorded on my dash cam. After calling it in to safety and reporting that a deer had hit me at such and such a mile marker in Toomsuba, Mississippi, they reviewed the film and called me the next day to thank me for going ahead and hitting the deer and not trying to avoid it. I was loaded heavy with some tall stacks of aluminum on my trailer. These extrusions can shift fairly easily if you are not careful. Safety knew all that and wanted me to know that I had done the right thing. It is an uncomfortable feeling not doing much to avoid hitting an animal like that, but it is a discipline that can avoid causing a catastrophic vehicular accident involving human life. You don't want to make any quick lane changes or jerks of the wheel in one of these big rigs. You are sharing the road with mom's driving their minivans loaded with innocent children. The consequences of an undisciplined maneuver to avoid a deer can have some really serious consequences.

I almost got a horse in Utah. Didn't swerve at all but got the brakes and managed to stop a couple inches max from him. Other than that I've seen plenty of deer on the side of the road, but they seem to run away from my truck instead of in front of it. I think they know I want to eat them lol! Oh and there was the gator that i saw early enough that I could safely change lanes to avoid.

So here's the thing, when working for one of the oilfield companies several years ago, they told us, if a dog, or cat, or any other small animal runs out in front of you, run over it.

You don't want to wreck a truck for something small. Natural reaction would be to swerve, nobody wants to hit anything, but you have to resist the urge. Now, if it's a cow or.something like that, you may want to attempt to slow and maybe veere.off off a little, as long as it can be done without rolling the truck or hitting something else, because hitting a cow will do quite a bit of damage to a truck, but, always, safety first, if you have to hit it,try to slow a little first.

Main thing is to not panic and jerk the wheel, that would be probably the worst case scenario. Now if it's to avoid a head on collision with another vehicle, yes, you may have to take evasive action, but for an animal, just try to minimize the damage by gently slowing down.

This is another reason it's a good idea to always be looking far enough down the road to try and see these hazards from a distance, and if you see one, assume they will run out in front of you and take corrective action early.

Fortunately I have not had any deer encounters, close calls but no contact. Duck and geese have flown into my truck more than once... Wild turkey encounters on I-81 several times but a couple of blasts on the horn took care of them.

A quick note on the deer whistles...I am a believer. They are cheap, not a bad idea.

A deer almost ran into my trailer til i blew the horn. Then in a populated area at daytime a doe and her babies walked across the four lane road near a traffic light. Mom went ahead and the poor things were trapped on the other side of the street. I slowly pulled thebtruck across both mynlanes and they ran across. I knew a car would come flying by and get hurt. At least I could warn the cars.

I did see a dead bear in PA and a really cool running mountain lion in WY

Since we are on the subject. Here is a recent news strory...

Raccoon in the road blamed for Florida diesel spill

The truck hauling 8,000 gallons of fuel jack knifed and rolled on the road. The truck spilled an estimated 750 gallons which later caught fire and prompted police to evacuate a nearby neighborhood.