HURRICANE — A driver who police say swerved to miss a rabbit ended up rolling her SUV onto its side Thursday morning near the entrance to Sand Hollow State Park.
Hurricane Police Officer Ken Thompson said the incident, which occurred shortly after 7:30 a.m., involved a white Toyota 4Runner with a female driver as its sole occupant.
The woman, who had been heading north on Sand Hollow Road, told police she abruptly swerved to avoid hitting a rabbit in the road. The vehicle went off the right side of the road and ended up in a nearby patch of weeds tipped up onto its side, so that the driver’s door was pinned against the ground.
Thompson said the driver was not injured, nor were any citations issued. The driver made it out of the vehicle on her own and waited for police to arrive. Although damage to the SUV appeared to be minor, a tow truck was summoned to remove the vehicle from the scene.
Thompson said encountering animals on the road can create tough decisions for drivers.
“It kind of depends on the situation. Everybody’s got to make the choice themselves,” he said. “If it’s a cow or a horse or an elk or something, obviously try to avoid it, but a rabbit is not going to do any damage to your vehicle or hurt anybody but the rabbit. But it’s your decision to make.”
This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings
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“Say, have you seen a wabbit wun by here?” E. Fudd.
One splashed rabbit equals one roadkill. One swerved auto could mean the life of one or more humans. Tough decision? Only if you are a bunny hugger.
nice SUV too. Hope it was worth it.
The rabbit should have been cited.
Ignore these miscreants Miss. You saved that bunny, without killing yourself, or anyone else, the car can be fixed, and you can finally see a return on that insurance you’ve been paying all your life. It’s a win-win-win if you look on the bright side; however, for future reference, if it is deer size, or smaller, do not swerve to try and miss it. Especially not on a two lane highway in the middle of the desert. If it had been 7:30pm when this happened; nobody, would be joking about it. Well, maybe the Wabbit’s.
Next time remember it’s ok to hit them, ravens need to eat too and they would be by shortly to clean up.
That quick of a reaction to avoid a rabbit, yet swerve hard enough to roll your SUV means you didn’t take the time to look out your windows to see if another car or truck was right behind or next to you, you could have killed many ….run the damn thing over “if” there is a ever a next time instaed of taking out innocent other drivers nearby
What is interesting about rabbits too is that it’s kind of a 50:50 chance that you’ll actually hit them if you don’t swerve. I mean, the darn things are so small and wily that they slip through the tires. In my personal experience, I have found that I have a higher ratio of hitting the buggers if I swerve to miss them than if I don’t. I get the knee-jerk reaction though. Sometimes, when it’s that early in the morning and something like a big jack rabbit comes bounding out of your peripherals…