This is a Wild Boar Crash Test

Those silly English... Jam sandwiches are for bears, use a salt lick for deer.

This is a huge problem here in parts of Africa. In places, you take your life in your hands if you drive at night because of the animal collision risk. I have a friend who almost hit a Kudu last night.

If only the governments would think of the safety of their children and mandate radar/laser aimed automatic weapons on EVERY automobile - only then will our future be secure.

I've always thought the infamous "elk test" used in parts of Europe is a bloody silly idea. The most common failure in the elk test is where a car rolls over. The manufacturers solution is usually to fit "stability control" which is a fancy name for deliberately making the car understeer, either electronically or by messing with the geometry. A stupid solution since a car that understeers is less manoeuvrable so it is more likely to hit the obstacle. It's also an irrelevant test since we are conditioned to brake when confronted with an obstacle. In all the RTAs I've seen drivers have panic braked rather than swerving, in some cases swerving would have been the better solution. So the manufacturers are making their cars understeer (i.e. handle badly) for no good reason.

While I don't necessarily question the logic of not swerving into the oncoming lane to avoid hitting an animal, the picture chosen for this article doesn't exactly make it seem like the most viable option either.

@Kelsey

Sure it does. Better to hit 330 pounds of animal at 45 mph then 3500 pounds of metal at 90 mph (45+45).

Then show a picture of the latter.

@zavatone : hitting a Kudu is horrible - you basically take the legs out and the full weight of the animal comes through the windshield, I'm glad for your friend - he is lucky to escape such an incident, my cousin hit one and he is now a quadriplegic, only 20 years old.

I've noticed from my own personal experience that there seem to be more animals on the tar roads just after dark, I've always wondered if it is because the road surface retains heat for longer, because it's not natural for these animals to seek out clearings in the bush at night.

The small north central Texas town where I grew up has had its outlying rural areas overtaken by wild boars. Seriously. My brother and sister-in-law wrecked their car trying to avoid hitting one.