Beef with Highway Drivers...

Sunday, November 13, 2005 03:30 AM

It’s a bit of a personal thing, but you have to wonder where some people got their driver's license from (and that includes some large transport truckers) especially when it comes to dealing with animals on the highway.

The other day, I happened by a full grown cow that was walking along the highway near Salmon Valley . Some person had driven off the road and through the fence, clearing a path for this cow to wander out on to the road.

This cow weighed in at about 1,000 lbs . I could see that the traffic wasn’t about to stop, and I had fear for those drivers (especially in cars) who were, for lack of a better word, too stupid to slow down. They kept roaring around this animal at over 100 kilometers an hour.

Now anyone with half a brain would know that if the cow decided to step into the traffic, they couldn’t stop fast enough, but worse, they might as well hit a rock wall because that would be the effect .

Of the 50 or so vehicles that passed both ways, only one decided to slow down because of that fear.

The cow bolted into the center of the highway at one point and I tried to flag a logging truck to slow down so he wouldn't hit the beast. As he smoked by on the outer edge of the pavement ,he looked at me with disgust, and here I was only trying to save the front end of his rig.

Other cars blasted by me looking at the cow in the middle of the highway as if it were just a statue (a badly placed version of a painted spirit bear perhaps) that they must swerve around.

Believe me that "statue" would have brought their vehicle to a halt very quickly and at the speeds they were traveling, there was a very real chance they would not be around to tell about the experience .

When the farmer came along to give me some assistance, I asked do they all think that hitting a cow of that size, at that speed, isn’t going to cause damage? She replied, "I don’t know, but you can sure understand why lots of animals get killed on the highway. "

I’m Meisner and that, is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 03:30 AM in Views by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Don Mackenzie on November 13 2005 10:35 AM

BEN..HOW ABOUT THE LOWLIFE SNOWMOBILE RIDERS WHO HAVE TO ROAR UP AND DOWN CITY STREETS UP HERE ON THE HART, THE POLICE DO NOT SEEM TO CARE, NO INSERANCE DRINKING BEER WHILE ACTING LIKE FOOLS. and we have only had snow for 2 days

Posted by: chloe on November 13 2005 12:43 PM

What about those who yield on a merge and merge on a yield, or those who think everyone behind them knows exactly which lane thay are going in or where they are turning, or those who drive slow in the fast lane....we could go on all day about the bad drivers in Prince George but what's the point it doesn't change anything. People need to realize that it's a priveledge not a right to be able to drive.

Posted by: spanky on November 13 2005 1:19 PM

Ya benny i saw a similar type incident down by spence's bridge with some mountain goats. makes a guy wonder what some of these yo yo's are thinking. As for donny's problem with snowmobilers on the hart. Hey donny you choose to live in the "hart" so now you must pay the price dude.

later..

Posted by: Don Mackenzie on November 13 2005 1:35 PM

Spanky my name is Donald Most people who live on the Hart are not Morons. Just some snowmobilers!!!!! I will take videos,and have them charged. I hope I meet you some day,so we can have a TALK

Posted by: spanky on November 13 2005 5:12 PM

Donny, we are on the same page. People riding snowmobiles on the road should not be accepted. I do however believe that by choosing to live in the "hart" , you are subjecting yourself to unnecessary problems. If you you lived say on Ospika boulevard, how many snowmobiles do you think you would see running around? I rest my case. As for you and I having a "talk"? Do not count on it bud, I have some standards as far as the type of people that I associate myself with and judging by some of your posts, you and I are not likely to run into one another any time soon.

Later..

Posted by: Marty on November 13 2005 6:44 PM

Donwan,

I live in the country to, but i live west of town , not north is all.

Sleds , atvs , you name it....i like it personally.
The kids riding sleds are not out doing crack and BE's !

A teenager broke the chain on his Honda CR125 this summer near my place, i helped him push the bike into my garage and we repaired it, and got him back on the road.

Oh ya i ride an Arctic Cat....its black and red, and my helmet is green/blanck/white....and my pants and coat are black except for the green Cat lettering....thought i would help ya pick me out.
As for the idiots in the cars flying past livestock....ya they are stupid....and while i have the chance i want to add....if you are not passing, keep to the righthand lane you road hogs !

Cheers

Marty ( thankfully not DM )

Posted by: Chadermando on November 13 2005 7:45 PM

Donzie lives in the Hart. LOL Thats too funny.

Animals on the road are not predictable. Where ever they turn their heads they go.

I like sounding a loud horn if I see them in the dark because the sound causes them to lose their footing, hence more predictable. After I pass an animal on the road I’ll turn on my hazard lights for oncoming traffic and give them a high beam low beam so they get a heads up. It seems to work. Slowing down is the obvious thing to do one would think.

Maybe we need a speed limit for when animals are in obvious visible sight on the road. Make it 60km an hour and the cops can hide out by farmer fields on the highway, or maybe train their police dogs to act as bait? An awful lot of animals are killed on the roads and rails in central BC each year.

Time Will Tell

Posted by: rock on November 14 2005 7:34 AM

I agree with Marty,I live in the classy part of the hart LOL and I too hear snowmobiles and atv's,but the way I see it is these are kids and adults living life and having fun not hanging around at the mall and selling drugs and getting into trouble.Donny I suggest rather than call the cops you should call PG yamaha and order yourself a new sled and join them,you never know you might enjoy it.
Rock

Posted by: fedup on November 14 2005 10:24 AM

Animals on the highway is a problem alright but you know what really burns me is people who don't know what to do around emergency vehicals.Now that can get scary.

Posted by: SpeakingOut on November 15 2005 4:50 PM

Actually, animals on the highway should not be considered the problem, the speeders are the "problem". It breaks my heart to see a dead animal on the roadside knowing that it is possible to slow down and avoid the collision, provided you are not going way too fast to begin with that is. In my travels I have encountered many, many animals on the side of the road, or even in the middle of the road, as well as running down the side of the road. What I have NOT done, is ever hit one of them. Nor would I ever want to. Too many people are in too much of a hurry, and as long as we have people in a hurry, we will have bad drivers.