We live near the Lake Tahoe National Forest area, as such, there is no shortage of wildlife. We have bears, wildcats and brown fox around us continuously. The chances of hitting a deer, of which we are inundated with, in our area are unfortunately, very high.

This morning, on my way back from my workout, a coyote darted in front of the XK. There was no way of avoiding him and under the car he went. If I was in my Range Rover, he most likely would have lived to tell about it.

I felt horrible as I hate to see any animal die, even coyote's that are infamous for snatching small pets in our area.

Didn't want to bum anyone out, just wanted to bare my soul on this one

 

Its ok Dave. It happens. I'm an animal lover and I've taken out cats, dogs, squirrels, mice, snakes, and once a raccoon committed suicide with my car. I hated every time, felt remorse, and got emotionally torn up. Its just something that happens.

You know in your heart you didn't want to kill or hurt the animal, it was just probability.

You can look at it this way. The animal heard you, the animal knew you were coming. They took the chance, and well, their number was up. If we took the same chances that the animals take, we would be getting hit by cars as well.

Just a few minutes ago, I was slowly driving down the back alley of a shopping center. I could see three cats hanging around the back door of a supermarket about 20 feet to my left. As I drove past a stack of pallets, one of the cats bolted across in front of me. I did not need to brake because I was going so slow, and that I had expected such behavior. A few seconds later, another cat ran across in front of me. Why was it necessary to do this? I looked back to where the cats were before and the third cat had an expression of "Idiots!"

Yes, we have laws that protect us, so that we don't get hit. But some people don't obey those laws. Do you feel bad when they disregard what we consider safe, or common sense?

Near where I live is a major street with no street lights. The city is too cheap to fix them or turn them on. Yet people jaywalk this street at night, in the very dark, wearing black clothing. How stupid is that? Sometimes the only way you can tell a person is there is because of the reflectors on their sneakers.

A few years back, it was a thrill for teenagers to hide in bushes at night, and then at the last second, run out in front of a car, scarring the driver who always slammed on the brakes. It happened to me. The stupid kids thought this was hilarious. That was until someone who had been pranked before didn't stop. Guess what, the stupid kids realized that they could get hurt, with real pain, real injuries, and real death. That stopped it.

Note: When it happened to me, I stopped the car and chased after the f@#cker.

Getting back to the animals, you can think of it as a form of natural selection, albeit when wildlife interferes with technology.

So to help with the guilt I might have, I help animals when I can. Typically its birds (when they have bumped into windows, or have been cornered by a cat), but I have saved a snake or two.

 

Truth be known the Jaguar is a killer cat...

 

Understand how you feel - I am the same way.

Was there any damage to the undercarriage?

 

Many years ago I tried to avoid a deer and ended up backwards in a ditch. Needless to say when a large Turkey flew down from a tree infront of my truck I didn't swerve. Also, had not one but two goats run out infront of my motorcycle(still don't know where they came from). I kept the bike up, didn't lock the brakes and killed both of them. I felt bad, but trying to avoid things like that most times makes an unfortunate thing into a possible bad or tragic situation for the driver.

 

Dave, I live in the Sierra foothills, just down the hills from you but, same amount of wildlife. I know that sooner or later it will be my miss-fortune to hit an animal. It is only a matter of time. I have come so close, so many times but, lucked out by pure luck.

About 3 weeks ago my nearest neighbor hit a deer, damaging his vehicle. Last year a car hit a 450 lbs black bear right by our house, totaling both the bear and the car.

I try training my mind, as well as advising my wife, not to radically swerve on our narrow, winding roads to avoid the animals because that is a good way of killing ourselves. Just goes with living out in the country.

I used to drive my canyon racer over these winding roads at speeds in excess of 140 MPH between turns. After a few years of living up here and watching the daily death toll of various animals lying on the roads, I am most reluctant to go fast. Hitting a deer at those speeds in a car with a super low hood would most certainly result in the deer coming through the windshield with the resulting predictable deadly effects. Getting nailed by the police is really the minor risk of speeding in these areas.

Albert

 

I inspected very carefully the undercarriage, as well as, the front lip and I could not detect any damage.

 

Just think of it as natural selection in action. By preventing all the animals that dart out in front of cars from further breeding, you are helping to ensure that in a few hundred years their entire breed will have a natural predisposition to better traffic awareness.

Meanwhile at least the coyote had the good taste to pick death by Jag. If I had to be roadkill that would be the way I'd go too. Otherwise jeez imagine the embarrassment of arriving in animal heaven with a Kia logo forever stamped backwards on your ***.

 

I am sorry to see that happened , it could have been worse , you don't wanna run into deers . I trust you never get same incident again and have trouble free driving