Andrew Sullivan directs our attention to Gizmodo, which reports on Mark Rober’s study about drivers who will swerve out of their way to kill rubber animals on the highway shoulder:
He found out that 94 percent of drivers did what anyone in their sane mind would do: keep driving on their lane. Remember that the animals were on the road’s shoulder, way outside their driving path. They didn’t pose any danger whatsoever to the drivers’ safety. On the other hand, six percent went out of the driving lane to run over the animals. Think about that: sixty out of one thousand drivers actually went out of their way to kill a living thing that didn’t represent any danger to their lives—and risking their own lives in the process, no less. Six percent were just cruel because they could be.
Of those drivers, what were 89 percent of them driving?
SUVs.
Am I going to see animals get run over in this clip? I do not want that in my brain. I hit a bird once. Actually I think it’s more accurate to say the bird hit my car but still…it messed me up for days.
Fucking SUV drivers. Doesn’t surprise me at all.
And the other 11% were driving pickup trucks with comically oversized tires and a Monster brand energy drink sticker on the rear window?
THEY SHOULD TRY THE SAME STUDY WITH DECOY BICYCLISTS.
I was all set to be pissed off about this, then I saw that it was from Gizmodo. DON’T F*ING LINK GIZMODO, they’re full of shit.
Ok, first, the majority of these “psychopaths” were people who hit a rubber TARANTULA, 3.2%. Next was a SNAKE, at 1.8%. Finally, we got to the 1% of people who are probably sick—they hit a TURTLE.
But these are not fuzzy animals, most are vermin, and for all I know turtles are also considered vermin where this was shot.
Again, gizmodo is a steaming pile of hype.
Can i still purposely run over soft drink bottles that still have a little soda in them?
Seems about right, and my personal experience would say that the numbers are probably a little low. That is, if you can equate bike rider or Pious driver with vermin, which the SUV crowd seem to do.
That said, if a squirrel is in front of you in the street and you do not want to hit him, aim right for him. He will run away, but you do not know which way. If you try to steer around him you will just confuse him and hit him about 50% of the time. Oh, and it helps to scream, “You are mine tree rat! All mine!”