Use Caution

The boss did a number on his Dodge Ram last night on US 289 near Weatherford coming back from Rule in Haskell county. Driving at 65 mph he struck a big hog crossing the road, center massed it in frontend and looks to have done $15K or so of damage. Lucky the airbags did not deploy.

Wow! We hit one a few weeks ago same speed but around 100 lbs and just damaged wheel well. Guess the center of the vehicle is not where you want to hit them. Rolled over it no problem.

We drove back Sunday night from Breckenridge to Lewisville, and deer were all over the roads at night. Lots dead on the ground and many alive and well on the sides of the road looking to cross. We also saw a group of pigs about to cross, but went back into the woods. There is lots of movement right now at night.

I recall from defensive driving years ago that a pig is the worst animal to hit.

Drivers ed 30 years ago they said it would flip you. We didn't flip. But it was a 3/4 ton.

May sound hokey but if I see any animal on the road or close to it as I'm approaching, I lay on the horn. It usually scares them back away from the road. If buzzards are on roadkill, I get on the horn about .5-.25 mile before them and they usually get out of my way. Wish that worked in rush hour traffic.

I do the same thing Scott.
Reminds me of the time I was headed to the woods on a Friday night at 70MPH and found cows on the road. I threw those underwear away.

SIL hit one on the way to our house in Mountain Springs on the North side of Ray Roberts Sunday evening. They were in a Toyota Corolla and luckily he is woods savvy, saw the eyeballs early enough, and got slowed down enough that it just popped the plastic bumper cover off. Popped it back on when they got to the house.
Man the stupid pigs are bad this year!!

Seeing the same thing here with both deer and hogs. Seeing a LOT more than usual, dead by the road. Also seeing evidence of cars going off the road into ditches.

I’ve seen an increase in the number of dead ones on the road over the last week or so. They’re definitely on the move.

I will be arriving at the lease late Friday night and dread the 18 mile stretch from the highway and lease gate. It’s freaking dark and there hasn’t been a year yet where I haven’t hit anything. What scares me the most is the damn cows

If the deer are moving and I start seeing them I slow down.
It's not worth getting where you are going trying to save a few minutes.
You'll spend a lot more time on the side of the road after ruining your vehicle and your bank account.
That's what passing yellow lines are for on the side of the center stripe.
They may not like it running up on my rear bumper, but after they pass me and I see them pulled over on the side of the road, I will stop and ask if they need help.

I have driven the road to our place for decades, I know where I will see the majority of the deer along the highway, I slow down during those miles. It is the areas that I have never seen anything that scares me the most. Off season we rarely see a deer anywhere on that 75 mile trip, but come the first weekend in November all that ends.

had a big boar do a number of my ranchhand replacement, took the under skirt back to frame& took out fog light ... left some of the foulest smelling goo all along the underside of my truck.

Update to this story, the black hog turned out to be a young black cow which further explains the significant damage. He found it dead the next day on the side of the highway, estimated at 400-500 lbs. He would like to speak with the owner of said cow if anyone should know of anyone missing a young black cow between Weatherford and Aledo.

I do the same thing with buzzards,about 40 yrs ago came upon a bunch on a road kill, all flew off in plenty of time except one decided to fly back across the road. If he hadn't hit partially on the roof he would have landed in my lap, windshield was shattered.

Wow. I hit a buzzard dead middle of windshield at 80 and nothing happened except a very dead bird flying 50 feet in the air. I did guard my face and yell but luckily nothing happened. Was in the wife's mini SUV on Hwy 290 and I saw it make the turn and fly between the oaks right to me.

I was headed up to Texoma on 289 towing my boat several years a go and there was a huge Hereford bull standing in the middle of the road. Hitting that thing at 65 or 70 would have been the end of that trip. I had to drive back to the deer lease from a wedding in Dripping Springs last Saturday. I was so worried about deer on Burnet Cty road 103 that turned on both my LED bars. I did not care whether they are street legal or not. I got about 3/4s of the way from 281 to 1478 and met a truck on a curve. I could not get to the switch fast enough. He did but I had him out gunned by about 50". Sorry about that whoever you were.