Hitting a moose is preventable
 

After I hit the moose, I found at the Swift in its infinite wisdom deemed it to be a preventable accident.

The reasoning that was presented to me:
A moose is larger than a deer so it moves slower than a deer. So therefore a driver can avoid a collision with a moose.


If any of you have had a meeting with a moose, was it deemed preventable or non-preventable?
Does anybody know where I can find information that will help me fight this?

Thanks.

I almost hit a moose once in my car. Came around a corner at 90km/h and a moose was in my lane, I had a second or two and moved into the other lane. When I was about 40 feet away it moved into the left lane I was now in and I had a split second to go back into the right lane. That was done in my Mazda Protege with very sticky tires and suspension modifications. I would have gone into the ditch with a lesser handling car nevermind a truck.

Have those boneheads ever seen a moose move?

I assume they got a statement from the moose to find out the other side of the story.

Can you appeal it? That's just asinine to call it a preventable, sure you hadn't done something else recently to make someone mad and out to get you?

What appeal?

I called the safety supervisor in Lancaster (my home terminal), he had to call Phoenix safety to find out what happened.

When he called back, a couple of hours later, he said the preventable stands and that moose are big and can't move very fast.

I told the guy that from the point in time that I first saw the moose until impact I was continuously breaking and that 30 - 50 seconds elapsed. His response - that is sufficient time to come to a complete stop.

That was my appeal.

Vance, where did you see about animal collisions are non-preventable?

your first mistake was driving for swift

WikiAnswers - How fast can a moose run

A moose can run up to 35 miles per hour, so it's a good idea to stay out of their way!

That is the dumbest appeal process I've ever heard, and I highly recommend you dig into the company procedures to confirm that they followed their own procedures. Normally a company's appeal process consists of having a fleet manager appear before a randomly chosen committee on your behalf, and present the case anonymously. The committee then votes on whether they believe the accident could have been prevented. It would surprise me if Swift didn't have a procedure similar to this in place, as not having one could open them up to a lawsuit from a driver who feels an unwarranted black mark has been put on his or her record.

I don't know all the circumstances but 30-50 seconds is a long time to respond to a road hazard.

When I first saw it, I let off the accelerator - engine brake full on.

Applied moderate braking action.

Moose started back toward the slow lane.

Applied heavier braking, maneuvered toward the right side of the lane.

Moose started heading toward me.

Impact.

This was at 2130 in Utah on I80E near mm 154.

When I first saw it, it was in the left lane heading toward the median.

This whole thing keeps rolling through my mind, like a dang horror movie.

What would you have done differently? {besides given your D/M a better story, 30+ seconds is a long time}

Its tough. The accident actually "occurred" in what, about 3-5 seconds?

After loosing 4 rigs in PA one saturday, we recieve a message akin to "hit the critters" DO NOT GO OFF THE ROAD TO AVOID IMPACT.

+1 on this. I would definitely dig a little deeper on this one.

I can see where you're coming from, however, it is preventable. And yes, all you who just know how much i love swift, or am pro-swift, am saying this not to side with the company, or bash a fellow swift driver....i'm saying this from an insurance standpoint.

This happen during the day or night?? If it happened during the day, then you were not looking far enough up ahead of you (more than half a mile)....you did not get the 'big picture'. you always have to keep your eyes moving.

Did it happen at night?? Then either one of two things happened (or maybe both)...you simply wernt paying attention (again, not getting the big picture around you) or you were driving ahead of your headlights. With high beams you should be able to see a football field ahead of you. Now going 55-60, you can get woed down fast enough to avoid a dear (or moose) standing in the road.

It has always been swifts policy that animal hits are preventable, this should be nothing new to you.

Whether or not it's preventable, you did yourself no favors by telling the story the way you did. "I was on the brakes for 30-50 seconds" sounds a lot worse than "a moose jumped out and struck my vehicle." 30 seconds is a long time. 50 seconds is an eternity. A moose leaping out in front of you takes about half a second. This was one of those subtle lessons that I learned from my trainer. You never hit a deer. The deer hits you.

I don't know what kind of goobers you have working in the safety department if they actually said that a moose is slower than a deer so it's your fault. That's just dumb. Everybody knows that you don't swerve to avoid an animal. If it hits you, it hits you. Now, if it were a cow...

He Answered it look below..

Bull****!! What kind of deers do you come by?? A deer can easily dart across the road while your going by, a deer has hit my car while passing by after i cleared him.. Maybe he could of avoid of it, but still your reasons are complete bs...

And when i attended Swift Orientation last July i was told if a deer jumps out in the middle of the road or any kind of animal hit it!! If you jacked knife a truck due to missing a deer or any other animal it was automatic termination..

dle i agree with someone else who said you did yourself no favor's by saying 30 to 50 seconds you had to react.. i would of clearly said it jumped out in front of me.. Hell aint like Swift is going to have an Animal Collision Reconstruction Team?? (Do They lol??)

I've only had one run in with an animal. I hit a deer last year on I-64 in WV. It was late at night and I had literally a split second to react. I had enough time to swerve enough for it to miss the tractor, but the trailer tandems made a nice deer pizza.

We also had one of our drivers hit a black bear (about 800#) within 1 mile of that spot. His truck didn't make it out as lucky, tho.

This sounds like one of those cases where you choose to tell the truth in hopes that it is the right thing to do. But we all know that is not always the case.

One thing I have learned from living in Montana for 25 years and dealing with wildlife on the roads, sometimes on a daily basis, is that they are totally unpredictable.

Sincerely hope you get your ordeal behind you with a favorable outcome.:thumbsup:

This may be why they are claiming preventable. The proper course of action when you see a large animal in the road is to slow down as quickly as possible, and proceed past the animal at a slow rate of speed. They are, as you're well aware, very unpredictable, and at the amount of time you claim to have had, you could have been at a complete stop, even from highway speed.

it has obviously never happened to you, when you are going 60 mph at night and a deer runs right out in front of you and you hit it, then come back and tell us why you didnt avoid it

You really mean you had 30-50 seconds to avoid this moose and you still hit him? Am I reading this correctly?
If so, I'd have to give you the "So whats the problem?" stare too.
:bigthink:

Yes you are mis-reading it concerning the time. From the first site till impact, with breaking was 30 seconds..

Thanks Vance for giving me that guys name - he was able to point me in the right direction.


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Update Update Update
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It has been changed to a non-preventable.

Somehow in the system they had it coded that I hit a COW, not a MOOSE.

The person that I talked to said, that somehow that eventhough on the macro call i said moose it got coded as a cow.

So they are now in the process of changing it from preventable to non-preventable and that I left swift on my own and not terminated.

chyeah, fight the power!

I've had several instances with deer. They either were just running into the woods from their jaunt across the road, or i saw them standing on the shoulder.

There was one load i had, it was a back-haul for Wal-Mart, and i was driving from I-29 (or whatever it is from Omaha to KC, and headed into the back country in Iowa toward Osceola, Iowa. I kid you not, at night, i had my headlights and driving lights on, and out of 60 seconds, i was watching the ditches for 50 seconds, looking for deer. And yes, you can keep the truck on the road and still look 20 degrees off to the left or right.

I saw 2-3 deer, and was able to miss them each time. Now granted, one just jumps out in front of you, you're not going to have any time to react...but i think it is a good guess to say that a deer moves a little quicker than a flippin MOOSE, yeah???

And yes, you dont veer for deer. You roll a truck because you swerved to miss an animal, you get termed.

I hit a cow with my car when i was about 18yrs old. It wasn't a pretty sight but the farmer who owned it had to pay to fix my car.

I dont know how fast moose move, I have never come across one, but I know a deer can be in front of you in about 2 seconds

good thing it didnt happen in Idaho, or anywhere else with an 'open range' law

Nope - a one-lane gravel road through a valley in the heart of WV.

Okay, NOW I'll chime in. The reason that Swift FIRST gave you was totally irrational! Saying that a moose is slower than a deer and therefore you could MISS it is BOGUS!

THAT is EXACTLY why you hit it! A deer would have gotten out of your way before you got there! A moose IS slower and really just doesn't CARE! Deer seem to be a bit "smarter" about these things, and will RUN like heck if given the chance. Moose are lazy, slow and MEAN! They will stand there and DARE you to hit them.... or CHARGE you!

But, you really should NOT have said 30-50 seconds. I can stop a truck doing 70 in less than 10-15 seconds! Things like this SEEM to happen in slow motion.... I'm SURE you weren't "timing" it!

The moose was THERE. He wasn't in any hurry to get out of your way. You did the right thing, except maybe veering to the right. MOST animals (jackrabbits excluded) will run BACK to the safety of the woods when confronted. But, MEESE just don't give a DAMN! :lol2:

My point is that moose are SLOWER than deer, and that alone should be enough reason to exhonerate you. Swift, as usual, is WRONG as to their reasoning! Even if it WAS a cow! Same thing! Cows are dumb and slow! The SLOWER an animal is.... the more likely you are to HIT it no matter WHAT you do!

It's not really ABOUT the speed, KC. It's about their reaction time, and inclination to "fight or flight." Deer are more "skittish."

That moose was probably just walking across the road, not running at full speed. They just don't "moove" as quickly as deer.

I don't reckon I'll ever hit a moose in west Texas, but since I've been running line haul for the last 6 years, I've nailed more deer than I care to count. I've also helped control the pig population as well. For the most part, the deer stay on their side of the road, but every once in a while, they decide to cross. It's usually right there in front of ya. When that happens, there's nothing you can do. If a deer comes out in front of me and I've got time to react, I try to shut down the truck as quick as I can. Most of the time, they keep running across the road, jump the fence and are out of sight. Sometimes you have that one that can't make up their mind which way to go. There have been times where I've almost stopped. It's almost like a calf in a cuttin horse competition. :p :lol:

Pigs on the other hand, nobody knows what they are gonna do. They like to root in the grass on the side of the highway. The bad thing is, a lot of times when you come up on them, they scatter. Most of the time, they go back toward the fence, but some of them cross the road. Sometimes, you can get lucky and wipe out a whole family. Only thing, they can really cause some damage if they hit you in the right places.

exactly. kinda like drag racing with an 18 wheeler, and a Lamborghini.....

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I've never BEEN hunting, but I've seen it on T.V. Even after hearing the rapport of a rifle, Moose will just "saunter" off towards the trees. Deer will fly like the wind!

There's a strectch of state highway in CO (411 maybe?) where the elk cross the road quite often at a certain spot. One time going through there, I had to slow down as I saw a small herd of them jump the fence and cross the road in front of me. They were probably not doing more than 10 mph.

A few weeks later, I went through the same spot and there were the mangled bodies of AT LEAST 5 or 6 of them on the road! Some trucker must have decimated the bunch of 'em! :eek1:

Elk and Moose have more of a "herd" mentality than deer. They will follow their leader into hell. As Rabbit said, deer will sometimes change their minds and directions 3 or 4 times. But, it shows they are in "flight" mode and trying to get out of the way. They'll break ranks and scatter like birds!

Hobo, I'll never forget the first time I drove through northern Arizona on I-40. I saw an Elk crossing sign, but I just caught a climpse of it as I went by it. I thought to myself, "What in the world was on that sign?" :hellno: I saw another sign several miles later. Then, it dawned on me. I thought, "Oh, that looks like an Elk on that sign." :lol: I never saw an Elk, but I was hoping to see one. (not in the road of course)

Is this a thread serious or is it a prank ?

Did you actually slam into a creature that large with a semi ?

Trucks hit Moose all the time, just because their big doesn't mean they don't commit suicide like everything else in the wild.

We had a company driver do 40k worth of damage in Canada when hitting a Moose.

Other large slow animals struck by trucks and vehicles, Bears, Cows and Aligators.