Speed limits on freeway - R-pod Owners Forum

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jato

Senior Member

Joined: 23 Feb 2012
Location: Kewadin, MI
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3221

Topic: Speed limits on freeway
Posted: 30 Mar 2021 at 6:14pm

+1 Bravo offgrid. I may humbly be able to say i have experienced more "accidents" involving deer than anyone else on this forum. As of two years ago when I retired, the last truck i was driving (94 F-150 4x 5.0L V-8, 322,000 miles) was involved in 31 deer kills and over 100 hits over a period of 21 years, just for that truck alone. Not including the previous kills/hits before that particular vehicle. Fortunately the truck never got hurt enough to be considered totaled although it did carry a nasty smashed in driver side rear quarter panel that wasn't pretty. What could I do to prevent these from happening? Drive slow? I got to the point of traveling at only 35 mph at 5 am when going to work, that didn't help either. Tried riding my bicycle to work, a short 5 mile trip. That was almost a disaster the 2nd time I did that as a large doe came within a couple feet of me and I was only traveling 19 mph. At least I was safer in the cab of the truck. Since retiring there have been numerous 'close calls.' The only redeeming factor in all this is no longer am I traveling at 5 in the morning but again, many of these accidents happened at mid day and late afternoon, very few happened in the evening. So maybe only travel at night?

God's pod
'11 model 177
'17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost
Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake
"...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free."

Dirt Sifter View Drop Down

Senior Member

Joined: 30 Dec 2018
Location: Right side OR
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 170

Posted: 30 Mar 2021 at 8:09pm

Jato, I think you must hold the record for the number of deer hit with your vehicle. I've creamed a number much, much smaller and felt all of them were accidental on my part. Perhaps it is a lapse of judgement as my immediate supervisor claimed (but was over ridden by the next level) when one of my troopers hit his third deer in twelve months. My supervisor challenged my calling it unavoidable because he said the trooper was traveling ten mph over the designated speed limit without justifiable need, in his opinion. My response was that it was a justifiable speed and further if he'd been traveling twenty mph over he would have been clear of the area where the deer jumped the guard rail before it was there. Accidents are accidents, crashes are crashes, each determined on their own merits. But I wouldn't want to be your insurance carrier. Star

Greg n Deb 2020 195 HRE
'07 Tundra 5.7L., '17 Tacoma 3.5L. Both with tow packages
1 Puggle, 1 Chihuahua support staff

Tars Tarkas View Drop Down

Senior Member

Joined: 14 Jan 2013
Location: Near Nashville
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1446

Posted: 30 Mar 2021 at 11:06pm

There are often accidents, or whatever you want to call them, that are avoidable, but I've hit a couple of deer and I swear, one of them was unavoidable on my part. The deer could have easily avoided it, it jumped in front of me from out of nowhere and hit me (sic) within a second of first coming in sight. I wasn't speeding.

All that said, I generally agree with Offgrid that many, many, "accidents" can be prevented through education, training, good judgement, etc. I don't mean to exclude myself; I just haven't figured out 25 years later what I could have reasonably done differently with that deer. It was really like the deer decided to commit suicide and pulled it off without a flaw.

2010 176
FJ Cruiser

lostagain

Senior Member

Joined: 06 Sep 2016
Location: Quaker Hill, CT
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2587

Posted: 31 Mar 2021 at 1:42am

As I stated above, "Most "accidents" involve some level of carelessness or negligence in the root cause, but lack an intent to result in some injury." It appears that we all agree on that point. Most accidents, or crashes, occur because someone didn't use reasonable care to avoid it, whether driving too fast, failing to pay attention, not anticipating the dangers, and so on.

The point is that an "accident, "crash," "mishap," "misadventure," and so on, are all believed to be sudden events that result in some injury or damage and that occurred without anyone's direct intention. There are many terms that one can use to describe this kind of sudden unintentional event, some implying blame and others emphasizing the unpredictable and unintentional aspect of the situation.

It's really a semantic issue and depends on the user's desire to either blame or excuse the conduct of the actor involved in the event. Since it's a semantic issue, the choice of words used to describe it necessarily depends on the point of view of the person judging the conduct and selecting the word to describe it.

There is a danger in using words to describe preventable injury producing events as though they are beyond human control, implying that the conduct of the person causing the injury or damage is excusable. In that respect, we have developed over a few hundred years terms that differentiate between levels of lack of due care and sanction them differently. We treat extreme indifference to safety as almost intentional conduct, i.e. willful and wanton conduct, and allow criminal punishment of the actor. We treat gross negligence as worse than minor carelessness and allow punitive damages to be awarded in a civil court, in addition to compensatory damages. Further, our tolerance for intemperate conduct has evolved. We used to treat, for example, an "accident" involving drunk driving as relatively minor form of carelessness and have now elevated it to a serious criminal offense.

In the last analysis, we each have to take responsibility for our conduct and its consequences.

Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney
Sonoma 167RB
Our Pod 172
2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

jato

Senior Member

Joined: 23 Feb 2012
Location: Kewadin, MI
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3221

Posted: 31 Mar 2021 at 5:39am

Originally posted by Dirt Sifter

Accidents are accidents, crashes are crashes, each determined on their own merits. But I wouldn't want to be your insurance carrier. Star

Fortunately, for both the company and the insurance carrier, none of the accidents or hits were ever turned in to the insurance carrier. Fortunately the majority of the accidents were toward the front of the truck which had a substantial bumper and sat up rather high.

With my current vehicles I am quite certain there would be substantial damage were another 'encounter' to take place, even with the 2017 F-150 as its stock front bumper is pretty chincey.

God's pod
'11 model 177
'17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost
Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake
"...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free."

offgrid

Senior Member

Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290

Posted: 31 Mar 2021 at 6:50am

Jato, sounds like your area like many others is severely overpopulated with deer. By some measures there are now 100x as many white tails in the eastern us than there were 100 years ago, when there was concern that the species might go extinct. No predators, less hunters, and the spread of suburbia (deer thrive in areas of mixed woods and cleared land) have caused a real problem. They destroy native forest plants, wreak havoc on the ecosystem, destroy crops and gardens, and spread Lyme disease. Generally they don't die off from starvation either, just expand their population till they're always on the verge of starvation and can't expand it any more. Not to mention. The 150 or so ppl who get killed every year hitting them. It's not uncommon to look out my window in the early evening and see 15 or so in a couple groups.

We try to avoid travelling in late afternoon/evening and early morning, drive slowly especially in areas where deer tend to congregate, and stop when we see one ahead because there are usually a couple more right behind them.

1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold