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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| Ouch!: Moose collisions hurt most | |
| 2005-10-13 | |
| Norwegian motorists hit about 3,000 four-legged creatures per year and the 'king of the forest' is the most damaging victim. Moose, Why do they hate us? Each autumn moose stories proliferate in the Norwegian media as the hunting season begins and the animals make a variety of headlines. A typical case is the Adresseavisen report of motorist Mona Austvik, who suddenly found her car smashed and a moose calf sprawled across her windshield. "I have always been on the watch for moose since there are so many in the area we live, but I never dreamed that it would happen as quickly as it did," Austvik told Adresseavisen.
Norway's insurers pay out about NOK 100 million (USD 15.3 million) a year for animal-car collisions, most of them involving game - moose and roe deer. "Such collisions often occur without driver negligence," If Insurance information chief Emma Vennesland told Adresseavisen. Vennesland said that hitting a moose often causes both serious damage and injury. If policy demands car-wildlife accidents being reported to both police and wildlife authorities, also to ensure that the animals meet a humane end. Wax 'im Bjorn Local wildlife authorities said that such accidents were arguably the leading traffic safety problem in South TrÞndelag County. | |
| Posted by:DanNY |
| #14 I find anti-war/america anarchist protesters just as difficult. Being anarchists, and slightly slow due to "issues" they never move in the same direction, making it hard to get your quota /not really, mods....don't ban me |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-10-13 21:18 |
| #13 How about emu? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-10-13 20:26 |
| #12 I swear Kangaroos are the worst. Their natural response is to flee by suddenly jumping in a different direction, making them impossible to avoid if they decide to jump in your direction. I once hit three in half an hour. Had a big steel bullbar on the vehicle which wasn't even dented, but they can make an expensive mess of the front end of a regular car. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-10-13 20:14 |
| #11 Also, in Sweden people probably drive cute little econoboxes as they do in most of Europe - not very safe in a collision with an animal that is almost half the weight of the car itself. The big-ass pickups and SUV's with brushguards favored by Alaskans probably result in a much lower death rate than the 4/5 cited in comment #1. I was on the Kenai Peninsula for about 4 months a few years back, which has a large population of moose. There is a sign on the highway going east out of Soldotna with the daily tally of moose carnage. It was only April by the time I left - well before tourist season - and there were already well over 100 collisions! Didn't hear of anyone getting killed by hitting a moose, but was 2 vehicles behind a van that nailed one...trashed the van, glass everywhere, and a gigantic dead moose sprawled across both lanes. |
| Posted by: model_1066 2005-10-13 20:00 |
| #10 You wanna distract a moose? Toss out a top hat; it'll spend *HOURS* trying to pull a rabbit out. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-10-13 19:46 |
| #9 The good news is that moose are easily distracted by ping pong balls, cheap and easy to obtain. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-10-13 19:44 |
| #8 Moose are formidable when hit with anything short of a deuce-and-a-half. So are elk and mule deer. I've avoided hitting anything larger than a badger or raccoon, but even those aren't "safe" to hit. I hit a 20-pound 'coon a couple of months ago, and had to replace the tire. Friend of mine hit an elk with a "Hummer". Luckily he hit it so that the carcass only rolled onto the right side of the vehicle. The right front leg went all the way through the passenger-side seat. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-10-13 15:59 |
| #7 Some of my best memories come from drunken nights out "colliding" with a moose. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2005-10-13 13:44 |
| #6 Another big difference is that, unlike deer, moose are very aggressive animals. They will attack cars. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2005-10-13 11:26 |
| #5 That's why you should drive an El Camino! When you hit a critter like a deer it just flies over the cab and lands in the bed, so you don't even have to stop to pick it up for dinner. |
| Posted by: bruce 2005-10-13 11:09 |
| #4 Closer to home the Amish buggy horses produce the same effect, so take the warnings to drive carefully in Pennsylvania and Ohio seriously. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2005-10-13 07:00 |
| #3 Sigh. "so they are usually unable..." |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-13 00:58 |
| #2 The same physics, large bulbous body atop long spindly legs, make the wild camel the same scourge in Saudi. People driving through the desert tend to go very fast through the wasteland between cities - so they usually unable to stop in time when they encounter camel herds crossing the highway. The car clips the legs out from under 'em and then that huge mass comes smashing through the windshield crushing / decapitating the occupants. I have, or used to, a set of pix of just such a collision, but it would break Mucky's heart, not to mention turn the weak stomachs out there, so I won't hunt them up to post. These are staple stories for the Saudi newspapers. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-13 00:57 |
| #1 Four out of five who die after colliding with game in Sweden have hit a moose. The moose appears suddenly and unexpectedly, the driver has little chance to swerve or even break. The long legs of the moose catch the bumper and knock the heavy animal over the bonnet and into the windscreen. What happens next depends mainly on the make of the car and the impact speed. The driver chooses the speed but there is no consumer guidance that gives advice on the âmoose safetyâ of a car model. The typical moose accident where someone dies or is seriously injured occurs at a public road with the speed limit 90 km/h. The driver is more often than in other accidents sober but has little or no time to react. Primarily the head, neck, chest and arms get injured, both by the moose and intruding parts from the roof and windscreen. A cloud of shattered glass both from the windscreen and side-windows hits the car occupants. Since the moose often penetrates well into the coupe and in addition crushes the roof and windshield towards the occupants, seat belt and airbag make only a marginal improvement, if any. The important factors for the outcome of the accident are the strength and design of the front of the vehicle above the bonnet. To be able to evaluate the âmoose safetyâ of different car models, VTI has developed a full scale moose dummy. The dummy is made of rubber and has, in contradiction to its precursors, legs that give the dummy a realistic movement during the crash. A number of crash tests have been made to evaluate the qualities of the dummy. It is concluded in the report that the dummy not only behaves as expected but also is very sturdy and withstands repeated impacts at high speed. The results are reproducible under equivalent conditions, which is a very important aspect in all types of crash testing. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-10-13 00:21 |