It had all the ingredients for a major crash: heavy fog, low light, early morning, highway speeds - and the sudden appearance of a kangaroo.
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The driver was not injured in this single vehicle crash northbound on the Federal Highway but his near-new Ford Ranger Raptor was a total mess after police say he swerved to avoid the kangaroo and collided with a steel guard-rail.
The impact crushed the left front of the car, peeled off the left front suspension, wrenched the rear wheel backwards and triggered a full six-airbag deployment inside the cabin. Fortunately, the Raptor did not roll over as the suspension buckled.
The crash occurred just after 6am on Tuesday about 12kms north of the ACT border and around 1km north of the Federal Highway turn-off to Shingle Hill Way.
The highway was reduced to a single lane for several hours until the damaged vehicle could be retrieved.
The high-speed kangaroo strike comes after insurer Suncorp-AAMI last month released data from analysing more than 21,000 national animal-related crashes in 2023.
Vehicle collisions with animals have increased 22 per cent year on year, it found.
More alarmingly, the insurer's research revealed that 60 per cent of drivers would dangerously swerve or slam on the brakes to avoid colliding with an animal, putting themselves and other drivers at risk.
Animals unexpectedly appearing on the road generates the vexed case of "damned if you do [swerve], damned if you don't", although generally police recommend that evasive action, other than maximum braking, should not be taken.
Swerving, they say, increases the greater danger of running off the road and potentially rolling the car, or colliding with another vehicle.
AAMI also found more than 40 per cent of drivers don't pay attention to wildlife warning signs.
NSW was the state most prone to road crashes involving animals with 30 per cent of the national tally, with 35 per cent of these crashes occurring on rural and regional roads.
Goulburn was the third worst hotspot nationally. Dubbo was the worst, followed by Sunbury in Victoria.
Almost 60 per cent of all animal collisions occur between May and October and dusk is the worst time, with a quarter of the accidents occurring between 4.30-8pm.
