Traffic Accidents

[MountainDon]

Interesting numbers...

Globally approximately 1.2 million people die in traffic accidents, with 50 million injured annually.
In the USA there are about 42,600 killed with 2.8 million injured annually.
Cars kill approx. 57 million birds a year in the USA.

About 2 percent of all deaths worldwide come from traffic accidents.
90 percent of these deaths occur in third world countries.

Due to increasing traffic especially in the third world, and generally increasing overall health conditions the WHO (the World Health Organization) projects that by 2020 traffic fatalities will be the second leading cause of death in the world, after heart disease.

Drive carefully.

[glenn kangiser]

Interesting, Don.

I have an $800 Jeep Cherokee with a cowcatcher on the front and a $16000 Dodge diesel (base prices) without a cow catcher.  Jeep is paid for.  Which vehicle has the greatest odds of hitting a deer?

Thanks, Don.

[MountainDon]

Whichever one you're driving between 5 - 7 AM or 6 PM to Midnight, IIRC. And mainly in the two hours after sunset. Fall and early winter worse than other times of year as well.

In some places more deer are killed by autos than dogs. 

[glenn kangiser]

In some places more deer are killed by autos than dogs. 

Good one, Don.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

  One year my uncle got his limit of venison, all on the grill of the county truck he drove.

After having lived in Korea and traveled in India, I am so thankful for drivers in the US (yes, even those in Chicago and Phoenix qualify as better than some I saw in other countries!!!!)  The first week I was in Korea, I was in two separate bus accidents.  I started taking the subway to and from work every day.  The first bus wreck I was in, the driver made a U-turn (Yes, in a big city bus!) and hit a small SUV that was right in front of him.  Then he got out and started throwing punches at the SUV's driver. Like everyone else, I hopped off the bus and went to the bus stop to catch the next one.  In India, it was like riding everything at Six Flags without having to wait in line.  My poor uncle was with me, and he kept having problems with motion sickness.  I found it was better if I sat in the back of the little trucks we rode in so that I could look out the back (there were two bench seats facing one another in the back) and see what we'd managed to miss instead of worrying about what we were about to hit.  Thee bus was the ultimate thrill ride.  In a seven hour trip, our driver might have been in his lane four or five times, and that was only when he swerved to miss a water buffalo, or, at the last minute would swerve after playing chicken with another bus zooming at probably 70-80 mph.  It killed me because you could see buffalo or donkeys crossing the road a mile in advance, and he'd wait until he was 20 yards or less to hit the brakes or honk.  Whew!  I was so glad that on the way back to to the airport, we took a train, which is a lot like riding in a cattle car, but at least it felt somewhat safer. 
Funny enough, though, the only wreck I've ever had was in college.  I was sitting at a red light in my small college town and a girl came flying up behind me, and she was singing with her eyes closed and rear-ended me.  Don't think she ever hit her brakes.  You know what they say about most accidents happening close to home?  I was two blocks from where I lived at the time, and on my way back to my house.

[tanya]

Here wher I live the deer are a real menace onthe roads I hit tow in two days once year.  First I hit one on my little dirt road I thought it was dead because it fell down like it was dead and appeared dead so I went to my friends house and said I hit this deer but I only hit in in the head so the meat is still good we have to go get it and butcher it because no since wasting that meat well when we got back there it had already got up and run off.  Then the very next day I took a back road from the highway home because I was driving so slow and still wasn't comfortable driving at highway speeds low and behold that big deer jumped down right in front of me from behind a tree and it took out my radiator.  I had only bought that truck two days before and it was a beautiful old classic and no I didn't have it insured yet. That deer lived too.  I have hit quite a few deer but I have only killed one that wa a little baby that ran after it's dumb mother out of some brush right under my truck tire I really felt bad about that for a long time.  It still had it's spots.  I swear there are some that just wait for the cars to come by, we call those suicidal deer.  I get a bad attitude when they jump in front of my car.

[Drew]

Spring through fall I like to ride my mountain bike after work out on the Sawyer Camp Trail.  It's a 10-mile round trip, multi-use trail near I-280.  I start riding in the season when sunset gets past 5:30.

The trail is nice for a multi-use.  It winds along side Chrystal Springs Reservoir and is relatively flat for the first 4.5 miles.  Then it goes up.  The good news is that it comes back down.  The temptation to blast on through at 20+ miles an hour is tempered by the thought of getting "deered" with only a turtle hat for protection. 

Those things are dumber than chickens, too.  They'll see you coming and still step out into the road.  Maybe that's just California dope chewing deer, but still.

Kids in my neighborhood like to walk slowly in the street on the way to the bus like some cowboy movie.  This is when it's still dark out.  I think they've been talking to the deer.

[John_C]

About 40 miles from me there is a country restaurant at Turner's Corner with a stuffed black bear, the largest ever killed in GA.  Taken out by a pickup truck in the 60's.  I doubt the truck fared much better.

I ride my bike almost every evening.  Our deer aren't any smarter. A flock of turkeys would do it as well.

[ScottA]

I see one or two dead deer on the side of the road every month around here. I've never hit one myself though. Biggest thing around here is people driving way too fast on the back roads.

[glenn kangiser]

You know what they say about most accidents happening close to home?  I was two blocks from where I lived at the time, and on my way back to my house.

It may be wise to consider moving far away, Homegrown.  Less chance of an accident.

[Sassy]

Homegrown,  , you have the greatest stories!  All the rest were good, too  How nice to be entertained everyday 

[glenn kangiser]

The temptation to blast on through at 20+ miles an hour is tempered by the thought of getting "deered" with only a turtle hat for protection. 

I got the turtle hat part, Drew.  Do ya' do the Spandex too?

I got a one fingered salute when I passed a biker in Spandex who was 3 feet into my lane near a corner on our skinny mountain highway..  I kind of stomped the mighty Cummins with a 4 inch straight pipe as I passed.  Unfortunately it exited the truck about 3 feet from him

Yeah, I'm a redneck.

[MountainDon]

I got a one fingered salute when I passed a biker in Spandex who...

Some bicyclists do believe they own the road. I'm always careful/wary when approaching them. I think some must be deaf as well.

[glenn kangiser]

Yeah -- I gave him enough room to safely miss him but thought he needed a warning to watch his position on corners etc. also.

It was for his own good.  I was trying to prevent his near future untimely death.

If it came to a choice between bumping a biker or possibly killing a carload of people in a head-on on a blind corner where I couldn't avoid him, I'm afraid he'd have to go.

I would do all I could to avoid that -- slow down etc.  but if no choice,  1 is less than 2 or more.

[Redoverfarm]

Before I retired we had a least one deer killed a night on the roads. This county is only 942 sq miles but lousy with deer. I even bagged a couple myself over the last 15 years.

[Drew]

I said mountain bike.  I don't dress like a freakin' candy bar, either.

Dan's from Alaska.  She told me about a train line that goes on for miles between these snow banks.  The moose come onto the tracks and start walking, but there's no shoulder for them to go to.  The train comes and bumps a whole bunch of them.  50-75 sometimes, if I remember right.

[glenn kangiser]

I don't dress like a freakin' candy bar, either.

Cool, Drew.  Then I might not want to bite you as I pull up behind you either.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Don, how many bats are killed by cars annually?? 

When I was 16, I was headed home from work one evening just around dusk and as I was flying down I-40, I saw something that almost looked like it was floating high up above the interstate... at first I thought it was a piece of trash blowing in the wind, but that was right before it swooped down into my windshield at 70 mph.  It hit so hard, I thought it was going to break the windshield, and nearly scared me to death.  Of course, it hit right in front of me, so it was pretty messy, and of course I was out of windshield washer fluid, so I couldn't see much of anything.  Nothing like having to get off the interstate to clean bat guts off your window.  ughhh...I felt really bad, but what could I do?  The bat obviously wanted to end it all.

[Drew]

What's the last thing to go through a bat's mind when he hits your windshield?

His butt.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Ugh, Drew!

[MountainDon]

   No idea HGT

  Drew

[glenn kangiser]

Good one Drew. 

[Redoverfarm]

HT the bats are just after the bugs that are attracted to your headlight.  Just drive with no lights and the problem is solved.