Avoiding roadkill
Contact the authorities
Final word
Avoiding roadkill
When there is a dead animal in the road in Alaska, it is both a sad and unfortunate sight. Most importantly, it is a potential driving hazard which can lead to a dangerous accident. Thus, it is very important that you do everything that you can to avoid driving over it or swerving too quickly to avoid it.
Although it is ideal to avoid running over the animal carcass, both for safety as well as for the condition of your vehicle, it is critically important that you not quickly swerve or slam on your brakes in order to avoid it. Doing so can cause an accident with another driver which is much worse than driving over it. However, if you are approaching a significant roadkill carcass you can switch lanes but do so safely by signaling and ensuring there is room for you to do so before you do. If it is a one lane road, you can use the shoulder to avoid making contact with the roadkill but do so with your signal on as well as at a significantly reduced speed.
Contact the authorities
Once you are clear of the roadkill, you should make note of its location and contact the proper authorities to get it removed from the road so that it does not pose a hazard to future drivers. Make sure you are stopped and/or pulled over when you do this.
You should never try to move roadkill yourself because it is a significant health risk as the animal may possibly be diseased. Also, it is extremely dangerous to be in the middle of the road, even momentarily, with oncoming traffic. The proper authorities such as highway maintenance, employees of the roads department of the particular municipality or animal patrol are equipped to do so correctly as well as safely.
Final word
Roadkill is always a sad and unsightly situation, but it can also be a road hazard that can cause an accident if you do not safely avoid driving over/into it. It is yet another reason to always pay extremely close attention to the road ahead of you. If you do see roadkill in the road, safely and slowly navigate around it and then be sure to get it touch with the proper authorities as soon as you are not actively driving and let them know where it is so that it can be correctly removed from the road. If you ever need any type of vehicle transported to or from Alaska at any point during the year, give our car shipping experts a call with any questions or for a free quote at (907) 331-3100!
