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Is roadkill - animals killed accidentally by vehicles accidentally running them over - a modern thing, or did it used to happen in the pre-modern era?
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gwl [he/him] lemmy.blahaj.zone gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-10-16
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My assumption is that it's probably been a thing since roads, so possibly since at the least Ancient China, but I don't know, so I was curious if any experts know.

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AbouBenAdhem lemmy.world AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-13
#2 · (edited) Quote Reply

Not roadkill per se, but most ancient societies had laws governing accidents caused by draft animals and carts. But I’d imagine they mostly took place in crowded urban streets, not rural roads with wild animals.

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LibertyLizard slrpnk.net LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
Joined: 2023-06-14
#3 · Quote Reply

Given the data on human survival rates in collisions, high rate of speed is almost completely the causal factor of serious injury and death. So, at least for larger animals I would say it's a modern phenomenon. Maybe some rats or toads or something got hit by a wagon wheel but the scale would be nothing like today.

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