What a strange story - but interesting, as I had a nearly-similar experience.
I once hit a dear, also going 40+ mph, as it came across the front of my car from the left. My left-front bumper hit it in the neck. Its ass swung inward, smashing into the approximate area of the driver’s rear-view mirror. At that point, the animal’s bowels and their contents splattered across the driver’s door and window.
To this day, I still Thank God my window was closed!
My family and I were leaving a shopping center one night with our Chinese food in tow.
We pulled out onto the 4 lane divided roadway in a quiet residential area. As I was accelerating in the right lane a car with two older ladies in it passed us in the left lane.
As they did, they apparently hit a rabbit that had darted out in front of them.
The rabbits head/skull shot out of it’s skin, screamed across the road at an angle in front of us, and bounced off the curb back towards them. This all happened about 10 yards in front of us so we all got a good look.
I looked over at the ladies and they seemed to be in a state of shock. The ladies horror seemed to redouble when they looked over and saw an entire young family laughing as hard as they could.
Never saw a rabbit’s head come off like that before, man. It did cause me to look at my kung pao chicken slightly askance when I got home.