Corolla = Animal Magnet

[cprez150]

So I've had my Corolla for a little over a year now. I live in the Texas Hill Country and there is plenty of wildlife that wanders around. But I have yet to meet anybody who has hit as many animals as I have within that short of a time frame.

Deer:
Head-on: 2
Slammed into my door: 2

Raccoons:
Head on: 7
Confirmed double Kills: 2

Duck:
Sucker flew into my windshield: 1

But surprisingly the cosmetic damage really isnt all that bad. My bumper is pretty messed up and I have a few dings here and there but for 10 animals...I consider myself to be lucky. I saw a guy on this forum who's wife hit a deer a while back and his rolla was wrecked pretty bad. Guess God understands I'm a broke college kid.

Ill have to post some pictures tomorrow so y'all can take a look for yourselves.

[SuperchargedMR2]

Maybe slow down in these areas, improve your lighting for night time. You could also try those animal sonic things that attach to the front of the car, not sure if they work or not.

[ZenithTheTV]

Was just about to mention the "noisemakers" that you can attach to the car. Its kind of a low/high frequency conic generator that you can attach.

Not sure why they're so drawn to your car but it might have something to do with the noise the corolla makes (or lack thereof), speed you're travelling at, or random luck. Who knows.

Stay safe out there!

[acr_vp]

Originally Posted by SuperchargedMR2

Maybe slow down in these areas, improve your lighting for night time. You could also try those animal sonic things that attach to the front of the car, not sure if they work or not.

Yes seriously look at YOURSELF first for the root of the problem. I've yet to hit a deer in my 10 years of driving and they are all over the place where I live. I see a deer crossing the road every other morning on my way to work. Raccoons also everywhere, and always are out picking in trash on trash days.

Also, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people hit deer after slowing down because they saw the first one. If you see one deer, there are almost always more around.

[LeanBurn]

Speed is #1. Wildlife are unpredictable, simple as that. They can run in any direction at will while a motorist has 10 feet to laterally navigate. The only way to compensate is increase your ability to see and react and this is accomplished with speed reduction. Even 10 mph (16 km/hr) can mean a full second or more in increasing the reaction time window.

Lighting can work for and against you as it can let you know the critters are there, but they sometimes can be memorized by them even can cause them to run towards the light because their own shadows can make them "flight"

I know people with whistle gadgets, they still get hit. The whistles constant noise seems to get lost in the wind whistle a car usually generates and other sub/super sonic noises generated by the vehicle...wildlife need out of the ordinary sounds like a horn blast which seems to work for me.

[cprez150]

Reaction time means nothing to me. As well as college student I'm also a firefighter. I cant tell you how many accidents we get for people who slam on their brakes then get rear ended. Or people who drive off the road dodging deer and in some cases that leads to roll overs. It's statistically better just to hit the deer.

[acr_vp]

Originally Posted by cprez150

Reaction time means nothing to me. As well as college student I'm also a firefighter. I cant tell you how many accidents we get for people who slam on their brakes then get rear ended. Or people who drive off the road dodging deer and in some cases that leads to roll overs. It's statistically better just to hit the deer.

Based on the sum of the amount of ignorance in your reply and other points you are trying to make... It's clear to me that you are the cause of why you seem to hit animals more than others

[PhatRoyale]

The Corolla doesn't have any animal magnetism at all.

[cprez150]

Originally Posted by acr_vp

Based on the sum of the amount of ignorance in your reply and other points you are trying to make... It's clear to me that you are the cause of why you seem to hit animals more than others

I'm sorry if you think that I am an ignorant driver. I've just personally seen people die in rollovers where people swerve for deer. You sir, are the ignorant one.

[LeanBurn]

Swerving out of control and ending up in the ditch means there was no time to react effectively. At that point it is reflex reaction rather than a controlled reaction. Its like pulling your hand away once its been burned, you don't think about whether there is an obstacle behind your elbow at the moment it is just reflex. Factor in that a vehicle has physical geometric parameters that they can only operate governed by the laws of physics, your only option is to control the operations that affect those parameters. The one operation that you can control is speed, which directly affects the vehicles trajectory of a given input by the driver. By going too quickly the amount of time you have to input that control and affect the cars trajectory is lessened greatly. Given enough time of it you can avoid nearly any typical obstacle on the road way, even if its moving.


So on the contrary, reaction time is actually everything.

[acr_vp]

Originally Posted by LeanBurn

...So on the contrary, reaction time is actually everything.

YES

Originally Posted by cprez150

Reaction time means nothing to me.

Seriously? A fighterjet pilot muscle reaction time to physically react to an unexpected event is around 300ms, that's from seeing something, to physically moving in accordance...

Traveling at 60mph, in 300ms you will travel a little over 26ft. Assume you see a deer 100ft ahead and brake. You will first travel 26ft before your brakes are even applied. Your brakes are applied, and you won't come to a dead stop for at the shortest 127ft (motortrend has that listed for the 60-0 for the XRS model which has better brakes). You hit the deer probably traveling at around 20mph.

Traveling at 45mph, in 300ms you will travel about 20ft. Assume you see a deer 100ft ahead and brake. You will first travel 20ft before your brakes are even applied. Your brakes are applied, and you won't come to a dead stop for at the shortest 71ft(math below). You avoid hitting the deer by around 9ft.

This of course is assuming you have fighterjet pilot reaction time. The normal good reaction time for an unexpected event is double that. And with that reaction time the distance you traveled at 60mph vs. 45mph is over 15ft.

Of course the slower you go the more time you have to react, and the greater the stopping distance you have.

*Calculating braking distance. Simple dirty way. Take a known measure, motortrends xrs 60-0 was in 127ft. 60^2 / 127 = 28.35... Using 28.5 for the constant, 45mph^2 / 28.5 = 71.05ft

Originally Posted by cprez150

I cant tell you how many accidents we get for people who slam on their brakes then get rear ended.

No doubt. But you're putting blame on the person who slammed on their brakes instead of the person who actually rear ended the car in front of them. In the case where someone rear ends another, they are almost always the one to get cited, not the person who did the braking.

Personally I would rather have someone rear end my car than hitting a deer head on. Front end damage is certainly more expensive to fix. But really its a stupid point, of course your going to brake if a 200lb deer jumps in front of you, it's a reflex you can't help it. Your not going to mow it down at full speed lol.

Originally Posted by cprez150

Or people who drive off the road dodging deer and in some cases that leads to roll overs. It's statistically better just to hit the deer.

This is true. It's statistically better to not perform evasive maneuvers, but of course you should brake. And of course statistically people are terrible drivers.

Originally Posted by cprez150

I'm sorry if you think that I am an ignorant driver. I've just personally seen people die in rollovers where people swerve for deer. You sir, are the ignorant one.

Yes, I do think you are ignorant. You come to a Corolla forum and ask if animals are somehow magically attracted to your car. Seriously. And then people offer good sensed advice and you proceed to tell them how they are all wrong. How is that not being ignorant.

Normally I don't care this much to provide such a detailed response. But I hope some of it sinks in and avoids a future accident for you or others.

[nitronate33]

a loud engine always helps. the only time i've ever hit deer is with a quiet 4 banger. never had a problem in any of my mustangs.

btw, looooove driving in the hill country, just gotta learn better where the cops are (and aren't).

[msncorolla422]

dang dude. and you live in BOERNE?!?! Im at UTSA so you aren't far from me or Dimaoala

Around UTSA too I've almost hit deer on many occasions

you are one lucky guy to not have too much damage