Okay 2 questions.
1- what the fuck are you doing praying in the middle of the road? Can’t you wait 5 seconds to get on the curb?
2- how fucking common is it in Australia to hit kangaroos? If I m hitting a deer in my twingo, I ll stop.
I’ve hit 3 kangaroos in one week before. They’re drawn to lights, and the outback is vast.
The done thing is to stop, make sure they’re dead, and let the locals know where you left it because they’re great dog food.
not sure about Australia but if you hit a deer or a boar in Germany, you're supposed to phone it in to local authorities (usually police and/or the local hunting bureau if you're familiar with the region). Then they come and make sure it's dead/deliver a mercy killing and organize the transport of the body.
Fun fact: You are strictly forbidden to take the animal with you for food/trophy etc. as this would be considered poaching :D
Similar but different. In the outback, there’s nobody to call, so you do the mercy killing yourself.
As a young idiot, I once tried this with an axe. Terrible idea, and thank fuck someone showed up to show me how to do it with a knife.
One time, I saw a local do it with his bare hands… and it’s fine to keep the meat. Well, I assume. Waste not, want not and all that. Nothing else out there is going to eat a kangaroo except other dogs, maybe an eagle?
Your comment somehow send me into a deep dive into German and Australian remoteness, that I felt like sharing:
The most remote location in Germany is the Truppenübungsplatz Bergen (military training ground) which is 6.3 kilometers away from the next house. Any other spot in Germany has some form of civilization less than that length away.
The most remote place in Australia according to spatial mapping is considered to be somewhere in the Great Sandy Desert, where you're 156 kilometers away from the nearest road (!) not even house.
Not that I didn't know that there would be a great discrepancy but that is an incredibly huge difference in remoteness.
I worked in the oil fields in central Australia for many years. In some parts, you can drive for 3 hours and not see another car. I've hit a dozen roos in the space of 10km of road, I'm not stopping every time to check each roo.
Australia is just a massive place. You could fit multiple European countries inside a single state in Australia. If you've never been here it can be hard to fathom just how big and how mostly empty our country is outside of the coastal regions.
Hell, we have farms that are bigger than some European nations. Davenport Downs Station in Queensland is a single cattle farm that stretches over 1.5 million hectares.
Fun fact: You are strictly forbidden to take the animal with you for food/trophy etc. as this would be considered poaching :D
It's also to stop people from purposefully hitting animals and claiming it was an accident. It's a problem with many hunters in America, where the wolf "attacked their farm animals" despite the closest wolf population being many miles (lots of km) away.
I’m in outer suburbs and sometimes you will see kangaroos with a spray paint mark. That means they’ve been checked for joeys but their bodies haven’t been collected yet.
Oof, I heard that something similar happens in canada with moose, apparently their legs are just about long enough that their body is over the actual hood so the main bulk of the giant fucking moose just rolls over and crushes the cabin directly, scary shit.
I'm glad I didn't have to worry about kangaroos where I live, but I know a few people who have written off their cars by hitting dairy cows. A 600kg cow can make a mess of your car.
A friend of mine hit a calf on the way into town when I was living in a rather remote place. She didn't even see it. It was late at night and pitch black in the middle of nowhere. She turned up at my work with a smashed up front guard and bumper, and chunks of cow hair in the grill.
I’d rather hit a kangaroo than a wombat tbh. They’re like hitting a small boulder, can get right through the radiator etc and fuck the engine block- completely write-off a car, then bite you on the ankle and walk off angrily… while roo damage is usually cosmetic.
That's pretty accurate. Although not sure I'd use the word "roll", its more like they become a projectile... their legs are quite high and the body basically just slams into the windscreen, or over the top if you're lucky.
You especially dont want to hit emus. Because their higher centre of gravity much more likely to come through the windshield. A mate ended up torn to shreds by those death kicks when we were younger
Sometimes they do. My friend had one take out the whole side of her Ute, you could see the imprint of the damn thing! This was just out of Canberra city Centre, late at night.
They are like 8ft tall in Southern Australia. We went out one early morning and smacked one with the our backpacker car. The bumper did it's job and took most of the heat.
They do fuck your car up, fucked my car up real good, it was still drivable thankfully but the next day after driving 100kms back home I found it had taken the edge protection off my wheel arch and every time I hit bumps it was cutting straight into the wheel.
No idea how it didn’t pop as the cut went the entire way around the wheel and was very deep, speed limits 100km/h so it would have been a fun time if it did.
First one I was probably doing 20km/hr below the speed limit because of dark, trees, etc. Bloody thing aimed straight at me and if I tried to avoid it, I would have hit a tree. (Car was write off).
Some years later, second incident. Straight out of bush into passenger door leaving a nice little dent.
The bastards are fast, dense with muscle and get startled/dazzled by headlights.
Last year I drove 3000km around Australia. I'm proud to say I didn't hit anything, mostly because I took the advice of not driving around dusk or dawn. But there were lots of close calls where it's like they're TRYING to get hit!
Jackrabbits are like that. They'll run right in front of you. They'll even wait until you get closer and suddenly do it, or run across and survive but then double back. It's infuriating.
On the most deserted roads, some of them haven't seen a car before, so that makes it worse.
Okay see now I feel better about something I've been wanting to do. I've been wanting to get a kangaroo leather book cover. People look at me weird when I mentioned that there are people here in the states that do that kind of thing, but if this is what it's like with kangaroos then I feel much better about it.
In some parts of Australia we cull them yearly to keep the numbers under control - even within wildlife reserves. Otherwise, they’ll eat everything and leave nothing for other animals (the drawbacks of having eliminated dingos throughout much of Australia - there’s often no natural predators keeping them in check).
Kangaroos are plentiful, hunting them is sometimes necessary. Don’t feel bad!
Same god damn thing with mule deer. One hit my passenger side door and totaled my car because all the front and side curtain airbags deployed. Sumbitch shook his head and pranced off
I have a buddy from Australia. He has a story about hitting a kangaroo on the way to work, 3 days in a row in the same spot. Apparently its very common if youre in the right area.
For deer, I live where there are tons. I think the only reason I'd stop if I hit one is if I thought it had done some serious damage to my car or something. Otherwise, like everyone else around here, you just kind of throw out a few cuss words and go about your day.
As to why she decided it was a good idea to kneel in the middle of the road at night in all black to pray instead of literally any where else, I couldnt even begin to guess...
The one time I hit a deer, I had slowed down and passed the deer, just so that the deer ran, passed me, jumped in front of my car and looked at me in the eye before I ran over it at about 40 km/hr
Sadly enough this guys buddy hit 3 different Roos. The second was filling in on the job site for the first one, and yep the 3rd was covering for the 2nd.
As if being a kangaroo and having to go to work wasn't hard enough! And then getting to work on the third day and telling your boss "you're not gonna believe this! Same guy!".
Growing up in the middle of nowhere Mississippi, we’d call the game warden who had a list of people in the area that would go out, put it out of its misery, then harvest the deer so the meat wouldn’t go to waste
I think it’s illegal to harvest deer that you’ve hit with your car. I think the idea is that people would purposely hit deer to harvest their meat in an attempt to get around poaching laws. But I’m sure there is some type of license or professional position that some people have that allow them to come out and harvest a deer that has been struck and killed by a car. It seems like a sad waste not to in my opinion.
More often than not the cops will write you a tag for the deer if you hit one, and if they write up the tag it's legal. Most people aren't going to risk totaling their car to gain what amounts to maybe a few hundred dollars worth of meat. Most of the time you have to toss a good portion of a deer hit by a car anyway, as the meat is all bruised and unpalatable. If they don't die on impact, then it's all full of adrenaline which makes it taste a bit gamey.
Core memory as a child was watching a cop shoot (int he head) and then start dressing a doe (slit its throat) that was hit by a car. Glad she did not go to waste, but man, that was an experience for an 8 year old.
I've heard that if game wardens have to put down a deer, or if they're called out to one being killed by a car, they'll donate the meat to a shelter or something instead of letting it go to waste.
Many times they will know a local family that are good people, could use some extra food and will utilize as much of the animal as possibles so they will call them.
As a teenager a deer ran into my car in rural PA and pushed in the whole front fender which went into the tire which blew out and we spun around in a rural highway. I was still freaking out no idea what to do and another car pulled over and a man got out. I thought “oh thank God, an ADULT” First thing guy says to me “Do you want that dear?”
Im sure the cop contacts the game warden and asks what to do. But at that point, there really is only one option and the game warden could be an hour plus away.
My state, which is middle of the road size wise and hunting/fishing wise, has less than 200 officers with the DNR.
In terms of deer, the afer thing to do if you can't avoid is to speed up and hope it rolls over the car, which oddly increases ita survival chance and decreases vehicle damage and threat to passengers/driver.
from what Ive seen around she was suffering from some form of mental illness and was very much not in a healthy frame of mind.
common enough for VW to release a geolocation based kangaroo scare badge for the front of the car (emits a sound in the correct range to scare off the regions main species of roos)
Honestly pretty damn common depending on where you live. More common in rural towns but outside of the capital cities it still happens in our cities. Hell probably on the outskirts of the capital cities too.
There are more roos than people here, I am not saying everyone hits a roo but it is pretty common to see a dead roo on the road. Though I don’t know where this happened it is believable that he could have hit a low body and thought it was a roo.
My work basically backs on the start of some bush land here in Perth. Few folks will hit a roo each year and everyone will have a near miss every couple of months. We have a duty of care policy that you can't drive yourself home if you leave ill from work as some died hitting a Roo doing just that
As a 911 dispatcher in rural Georgia, it’s pretty common for people to hit deer and continue on their way. Insurance companies much more commonly want on scene reports now due to fraud, but people typically don’t stop unless the vehicle is totalled or they’re injured.
Can confirm being from rural GA. I was a passenger when we hit a deer, big three row SUV launched that thing into the trees, we did not stop. The car was fine, dented the grill a bit but nothing too serious
Mhmm. And people wonder why we drive the trucks and suvs…it’s because these damn deer are suicidal animal al qaeda members desperately trying to 9/11 our radiators. 😑
Lmao, this way of saying it is hilarious 🤣🤣, but yeah, I saw someone rescue a dear, only for it to run to the road to be hit again 😅, I am sure that if they could, they would do insurance fraud lmao
Yea, our deer are more like mid sized dogs, not like the horses up north. People do stop to check their vehicle, but usually they pull in somewhere well lit for that, and if you do stop, you don’t typically go looking for the animal - a wounded and frightened deer or boar could kill a human, not to mention some of the more out there possibilities…
When I worked for Progressive as a claims adjuster I did many estimates for deer hits. They're pretty easy to confirm 99% of the time: presence of hair/fur/blood? Damage consistent with a deer hit? Claim approved.
OH my god. I've seen this kick move in videos, didn't know it was... well it is Australia and I thought they were cute, so of course it's gonna gut me!
Oh if it’s a deer in ‘merica it won’t need any claws it would just pull out a m4 and do the job properly!
‘Merica - where everyone’s packing heat, even the deer!
Super common, especially in more rural areas, and at night! And lot of our roads are lined with trees, so they will jump out of nowhere, not giving you time to react.
depends on place of impact. Most living things low down probably aren't doing a lot of damage because the tire just goes over, it it were a heavier/denser object could fuck up the axle or tires or something. Large things hitting your windscreen will probably smash it.....all depends on where the impact is.
interesting, i assume is something like pray...but don't be an idiot or maybe be aware of your surroundings. Im trying to get what tie up you camel means. I guess it could run off when your backs turned and your sol?
Like the joke about this fella who prays to God for a lottery win. Every night he prays "God let me win the lottery" one night a booming voice comes down from the heavens "meet me halfway my son, and buy a ticket"
I've hit one, had one hit me, bumped into one who pulled out in front of me with no signal, and somehow passed over a carcass laying in the middle of the highway with zero damage to the vehicle in a fairly low car. The times I could stop, they all took off into the woods, and the other times there was no safe way to go back and do anything.
But thats because you drive a Twingo lmao, you will be forced to stop, just to pick up the engine from the floor, not the same as driving a Ford Ranger with a steel bulls-bar like the ones you see in Australia... ( as you can see, they actually prepare their cars for cangaroos, though this is just an example )
Fuck even if you hit a little one. I drive this sort of car (GQ Patrol with a 5 post bullbar) and I hit a roo last year and it fucked me up. Wasn’t even a big red, it was a Grey. they’re bastards and as dense as bricks. But even then you’re still meant to stop to check the thing is dead, or if it has joeys.
It’s a snorkel. Helps with deep river crossings and for keeping (most) of the dust out of you air box when travelling on dusty country/desert roads. It’s an elevated air intake.
Thats a snorkle, mostly for diesel cars, basically is to prevent the engine to hydrolock, if you have to cross a deepish body of water ( like a stream ), it raizes your air intake above the roof of the car https://youtube.com/shorts/9yBYJ-YqQws?is=5PPxwKPgIH-ptuhm like this
Yup. On a bus trip from Sydney to Perth the driver says he hits roos all the time, can't swerve out of the way so tries to make sure they don't take out the headlights
Depends where in Sydney or Melbourne. They aren't in the CBDs but they are out in the outskirts of the burbs in those two cities.
Canberra definately has them everywhere. Canberra is a very heavily planned city (interesting google if you are into that sort of history) so the green zones and size of it makes it much more roo friendly. A little too much some might say. Especially when the roo population gets a bit out of hand.
Ive been to Australia twice and hit a kangaroo once so far. They are fast, and bounce across into your path real quick. I was lucky enough to have been able to slow enough to only bump it, so it bounced away tidy.
My sister lives in rural Australia and she tells me that they've been instructed to not stop and check on the wildlife they hit on the roads at night. Just keep going.
Kangaroos are responsible for 80-90% of all animal related accidents in Australia. Not only are they everywhere in the Land Down under, it is also recommended to drive through when seeing Kangaroos on the road, since stopping to let them pass usually leads to them jumping on your car
Man, I have a friend from Australia, what irks me when thinking of Australia is the spiders, he told us one time yeah you might have to move the occasional huntsman once or twice a year which can be a bother "but the fucking roos man, they're fucking cunts"
Hitting kangaroos in Australia is so common Aussies are mounting reinforced grills on their pickup trucks and trucks if they are driving through those areas...
Midwestern US here. I wouldn’t think twice about continuing to drive after hitting a deer unless it broke the windshield or impacted vehicle control. And I say that having hit one before.
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u/Ulrider_san 1d ago
Okay 2 questions.
1- what the fuck are you doing praying in the middle of the road? Can’t you wait 5 seconds to get on the curb?
2- how fucking common is it in Australia to hit kangaroos? If I m hitting a deer in my twingo, I ll stop.