Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire horse - like a moose

1/4 mile down the road from me this morning, in the dark, a horse was in the road and got hit by a minivan doing 60. The horse is dead, both people in the car badly injured. It opened the roof like a sardine can.
This is what happens if you tag a moose or elk. Don't take a chance with one. You will lose.

Man.....

Very reminiscent of Moose-vehicle collisions in New England

I know of two people paralyzed by crashes like that.

This is exactly why I drive below the speed limit when I leave the house before sunrise and I drive with the expectation that I'll encounter livestock/wildlife and I have. The scariest was a very foggy morning on a two-lane blacktop and I ran up on a large black angus in the middle of my lane, fortunately I was only going about 30-mph and stopped in time to avoid it.

Idaho is an open range state and livestock have the right of way. However, open range doesn't apply in fenced areas and this happened in a fenced area. If the driver sues the horse's owner, he has a good chance of winning. If it was outside a fenced area, the horse's owner would collect the value of the horse.
Moose have the right of way no matter where they are.

It's amazing how something so big can seem to be invisible until it's often too late. I've come up on moose in the dark many times and thankfully have never tangled with one.

In the brush, moose can be darn hard to see in broad daylight, too.

Hit a moose with my truck and it didn't do any damage. I've got an one off fabricated super heavy cattle guard type bumper with an winch on front and that moose was ejected a good 100 ft down I-90. My bumper and guard is made from 1/2" plate steel and it's saved my old truck many times from critters and once from an new SUV it peeled open like an pop can.

Yes, happens a lot up here.

Either way, big animals and cars don't mix well.

About 20 years ago my wife and I were traveling at night in my Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser . Blinded by oncoming truck lights , we centerpunched a cow moose at about 50MPH. Made roadkill of the moose and the Tojo instantly but we got off without a scratch, don't know how, it was like hitting a brick wall. If we had been driving a car or some little plastic jeep we would have been killed for sure, the old FJ-40's were built like a tank.

about 15 years ago a gal over at Priest River punched a moose. all 4 legs ended up inside the car. poor gal almost got kicked to death. something like 400 stitches.

Good lord!

A man at work once ran over a donkey with his company truck It did some damage, but nothing like the original post int his thread.

I've investigated a couple of moose/vehicle fatalities. They are bad.

My prayers go out for the victims and the first responders.

Ed

I own my farm partly because the previous owner drove under a horse in a Ford Ranger truck on his way to work. Some portion of the horse ended up in the cockpit, thrashing, until an LEO came and put down the horse so first responders could extricate the driver. He ended up with a permanent back injury that was not conducive to working cattle or bouncing around on a tractor.

Our neighbor used to have a holstein bull that was an escape artist. Wife and I were on our way to town one night and found a mini van in pieces on the road. The woman driving, and her young daughters were very fortunate to only have some bruises.

I hear they shoot the livestock owners in Idaho...

Yes. An exercise I'd only want to try with my cow-catcher bumper. With all the fiberglass and composites, there's not much in the way of stout with todays rigs.

That should buff out

We got 50,000 wild ones running around our state. I see 20-40 wild horses every day where I live. A scourge, public nuisance, safety hazard and ecological disaster. Known of 2 people in last year to die by horse/car collision. phugging BLM.