MnDOT’s red highlight. Geese in wrong place at wrong time. So too the black pickup driver. Image: Minnesota Transportation Department
What’s the law? Wildlife has right-of-way
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. – A driver plowed through a family of geese crossing a feeder freeway into the Minneapolis West Side. It was messy. The state Transportation Department released a video with an admonishment that it’s illegal to hit wildlife crossing a road. The incident was Saturday about 8 a.m. A violation can mean 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The Department didn’t say whether its surveillance camera captured the license number of the black pickup that hit the geese. As released to the public, the video blurs the moment of impact. Two geese survived. The video shows the driver didn’t slow – no brake lights — and just kept going in the 60 mph zone of the three-lane Route 100. An overhead emergency sign, clear in the video, was messaging an alert: “Animal on Road. Left Lane Closed.” Other drivers, ahead of the black pickup, had merged right to avoid the geese. It appears that the pickup driver had ample time and space to safely move into another lane.