As anyone who’s ever had to take a back road on the north shore can tell you, Long Island has an abundance of wild turkeys. Around now they can be a bit of a festive sight to see crossing the road, but any other time of the year it can be a bit stressful to see these big birds loitering in the middle of the road. You really don’t want to hit one of these birds while they’re just hanging out so you might find yourself just sitting and staring at them for a few seconds, waiting for them to cross the road. This isn’t an experience unique to turkeys though, as plenty of us have probably had one or two scares when a deer jumped in front of us out of some brush.
Credit: Brookhaven National Lab
In general, avoiding these big birds can be a challenge, especially because of how well their dark feathers blend into the color of the ground and trees. This, combined with just how calm turkeys tend to be around humans, makes them a real risk on the road. So, be sure to practice basic driving safety, eyes on the road and all, but even then there’s a real chance you might not see a group of turkeys until you’re just a few yards away from them. In these sorts of cases, assuming you’re going the speed limit, combined with how low that limit is on most back roads where you’re likely to encounter a turkey, a sudden stop should still be perfectly safe.
Of course, if you’re going well over the limit, or maybe on a road where the limit is much higher, a sudden stop can be dangerous. Tempting as it might be to swerve out of the way of a pack of birds, the sad reality is that a turkey is a whole heck of a lot softer than the trunk of a tree, and if there’s not ample road, you’re a lot better off not risking a hospital trip over a couple of them. This is of course, a last resort scenario. Ideally you’ll either be going the speed limit, or have enough road that a higher speed swerve won’t take you off the road. In any other situation though, it’s important to place the safety of yourself and your passengers first.
A beautiful bird, but not worth your life.
All of this is magnified in hazardous weather conditions. If there’s heavy fog or worse, heavy rain, then the odds of you being able to see anything in front of you, much less something rushing out of the brush, is low. If an unfortunate turkey or deer jumps out in front of you trying to make any evasive maneuver, even going a reasonable speed, will put you and other drivers at risk. If you do happen to hit something in hazardous weather, it’s important not to stop driving, or to look behind you to assess damage done. If you want to check on the wildlife you collided with, gradually slow down, and pull over some distance ahead. Stopping suddenly or taking your eyes off the road puts everyone in danger, and you should only go to investigate once you’re safely parked on the side of the road.
We realize this isn’t a particularly enjoyable conversation to have at any time of year, but with winter coming soon and recent bouts of heavy fog, it’s important to take all possible measures to keep yourself and others safe on the road. We all love our wild neighbors on the island, but if the worst-case scenario happens, it’s important to place you, your passengers, and other drivers’ safety above that of the wildlife. An animal collision is tragic, but not as much so as a car driven into a tree or home.
By Andrew Wong, Long Island Pine Barrens Society
Cover Photo by Matt Foster on Unsplash
