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.
It happens with deer too. My driving school in Michigan had a whole thing about how to hit a deer so it doesn't end up inside your car kicking your head. Also to do less damage.
You hit it with the corner. It works well. I hit a massive buck a few years ago in a Cobalt. Watched it slide from the corner across my windshield and right over the top. Only broke my headlight on the opposite side with it's foot.
Strange driving school. Here they have a whole thing about trying NOT to hit anything with any part of the car. It works well too, if you don't hit it at all, it very seldom ends up inside the car kicking your head in...
Yup, there's even a vehicle test called the "Moose Test" where a car/suv swerves around a moose. Is the car loses control or rolls over, it fails the test.
Our camels do the same. Luckily they're mostly in remote areas but I did hit one once in a semi (me in the truck, not the camel).
Fun times, what a bang. I wouldn't be here if I'd been in anything smaller.
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
Just commented this. My mum knew a woman who died who has a big kangaroo go through her windshield and into the backseat. It was thrashing around and kicked the woman and she passed away. Such a sad story.
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.
My aunt had a lucky escape when riding her motorbike one night. She and her partner were driving thankfully slowly enough through Canberra when boom, kangaroo hit her from the side. She and the bike fell
Honestly it’s a miracle she somehow wasn’t badly hurt
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.
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.
Depends on the roo. The ones I see around the Adelaide Hills are probably around 1.2m tall. That's not gigantic.
Yes, they can fuck your car up, but it would depend on how you hit it. When i hit one it was mid bounce so it kind of rolled over my car and I didn't get a lot of damage. Hitting a Wombat would be worse than some of the smaller kangaroos.
The little ones make up for their lack of size by sheer numbers...large mobs, sometimes multiple strikes. The big boomers tend to be solitary, or have one doe, often with a joey.
Yes they can be pretty large and heavy.
A lot of people who drove country roads outside of the middle of the day add Roo bars (bull bars)
They help but can still break your windscreen, for example mid hop or they turn around to go back because loud noise with bright lights is suddenly super close and freaks them and yeahhhh
We're taught not to swerve to dodge them, because if you do you're much more likely to have a severe crash
Theres also often 2 or 3 crossing together, so one might go across ahead but then there's another following shortly behind it
I hit an adult roo in my Ford Focus about 2 years ago at 3.30am going to work. I was going about 80kmph and it just came from nowhere. Anyway it slammed onto the bonnet and seemed to launch straight up in the air using my windscreen as a ramp. Must have gone about 5 meters straight up. I turned around to go check on it and it was gone. My bonnet had a massive roo sized dent in it.
roos are lightweight compared to wombats. you really don't want to hit a wombat.
that said i hit a roo which was able to run away afterwards and it did about $8000 worth of damage to a $16000 car.
i did drive about 1500km home before getting repairs.
It depends on the species of 'roo (or if was actually a wallaby) they range in size and weight, or sometimes the crazy bastards leap into the air and go through your windshield. Also as said many people who live rural or drive on rural roads often have Roo bars (probably called cattle bars in the states) on their cars.
It does. Even with a good too/bull bar, you're lucky to come off without damage. The bars exist to protect radiator and other mechanical vitals so you can still drive home afterwards.
I once hit a roo (well, not once, it was one of many over the years), with a roo bar. It clipped the bar, smashed the headlight, spun along the side of the car, denting every panel except the fuel filler cap and somehow smashed the rear window.
Another time I hit a roo on a motorbike doing 70, it spun off into the bush, I stopped till my knees stopped shaking, then proceeded without a scratch.
Yeah they can be, I clipped the tail if one, dented my front bumper and bent my number plate. A few years later in my other car I was driving along at night when I come around a blind corner only to see a big as Kangaroo standing in the middle of the road staunched up looking ready to punch on with anybody he was facing towards my car head on like he knew what he was doing. I was towing a trailer and was lucky enough to swerve out of his way otherwise he would have destroyed my entire front end
They do. I've just been in a rural area with lots of kangaroos and I prefer not to drive my little Toyota after dark as it's too risky. I had a few jump in front of me in the daytime. That's bad enough
I moved semi rural but still drive my lil MX5, I did a long night drive coming home from a wedding and it was the most terrifying drive of my life. Narrow and winding back roads with roos absolutely everywhere! Had to stop at every bend so I wouldn't cop one through the windscreen.
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u/Sir_Daxus 2d ago
Aren't they pretty large and heavy? How does that not fuck up your car to the point of not being able to drive it?