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It is a tough call... I still wake up in the middle of the night condemning myself for an incident.<trim cat story> But guilty remains. So you live with it. And don't screw up your relationships over it . Stuff happens.
My cat story: Heading up North going through Atlanta, evening rush hour. 65 MPH traffic. Saw a cat climb up out of the bed of a pickup truck onto the tailgate, loss its balance and fall flat on the road. All four legs spread open as he spun under my car and disappeared in a flash.
Always wondered how the driver explained the missing cat when they got home.
First, are you sure the squirrel died? Hard to kill a squirrel on purpose with a car. He would have had to swerve enough to pinpoint hitting such a small animal and then correct back to driving. ......
The OP said he went back afterwards and moved the squirrel's body off the road so I think that means the squirrel was dead.
You are right that it's hard to kill a squirrel on purpose with a car. Since the driver was successful at killing the squirrel so easily this time I think that also means the driver has probably had a lot of previous practice at deliberately killing other animals with his car.
Hello everyone. I was driving with my friend today who was driving erratically. It was all fun and games until I saw a squirrel getting ready to cross the road. I said no please wait there is a squirrel, he swerved on purpose to hit it and now I feel soo completely horrible that he died.
I feel like that I should have had him slow his driving down before hand before we were laughing at him driving like a madman. I feel if I wouldn't have laughed and egged him on to drive like a nut case he wouldn't have hit it.
Consider this...
His erratic, fast, "like a madman" driving could have caused him to hit a child or another car and kill a whole family.
Maybe that lesson will keep you from ever being complicit, laughing or egging on reckless driving. The end result could be much worse than a dead squirrel.
This was actually the squirrels fault for being in the roadway in the first place. Natural selection. Squirrels also are nasty rodents that don't have feelings. I'd move on with my life, it's not like you hit a dog of something.
Hello everyone. I was driving with my friend today who was driving erratically. It was all fun and games until I saw a squirrel getting ready to cross the road. I said no please wait there is a squirrel, he swerved on purpose to hit it and now I feel soo completely horrible that he died.
I feel like that I should have had him slow his driving down before hand before we were laughing at him driving like a madman. I feel if I wouldn't have laughed and egged him on to drive like a nut case he wouldn't have hit it.
Call me crazy but I'm an absolute animal lover and I'm over compassionate sometimes.
I messaged him to tell him how upset I was about him intentionally hitting it, but he said for him that's like killing a fly or a rat...??
I just don't get how a human wouldn't bat an eye to kill something. I wont even kill bugs in my house if I don't have to, I put them outside.
Sorry guy I am very upset over the death of this squirrel. I at least went back to where he was hit and moved him into the side of the road.
You'll have to let it go. I think most of us have accidently hit something at one time or another. I remember when a woman intentionally walked out into freeway traffic predawn in Atlanta. No one was really sure what they hit. Someone reported that a large animal had been hit. By the time they figured it out it was a real mess. So... It could be worse!
I would feel horrible for having a supposed 'friend' who was stupid enough to feel driving erratically with me in the car was somehow funny.
The 'friend' is a total idiot imperiling the lives of you (himself - maybe not a bad thing if he's a solo Darwin award contestant) and other innocent drivers and pedestrians.
As for the squirrel, I assume you've seen bumper stickers extolling us that "S*** Happen" or that the world is overpopulated or that something or someone somewhere is hurting / dying / starving etc... so perhaps in the "Butterfly Effect" thought process you can imagine the squirrel having caused you to have an accident as you tried to avoid it and crashed into a tree (so your friend saved your life) or maybe you can be inspired to write a Stephen King like Pet Cemetery story about a vengeful squirrel who attacks motor vehicles driving erratically and causing the drivers to crash into telephone pole.
Yeah, that's awful, OP. What a heartless jerk. I was with a drunk redneck who did this once (one and only time we were with this neighbor)---swerved off the road into a ditch to hit a rabbit!
We hit a squirrel once by accident: I heard the thump, then saw it flip up in the air in my rear-view mirror. We didn't even acknowledge it to each other, we were so sad.
Then once I thought there was a rope in the road and, unthinking, ran right over it. The snake was rearing half of its body up in the air when I glanced back. I'll never forget it. Don't run over ropes.
Then again, the experts say not to swerve into a ditch to avoid a deer---creates worse accidents.
How do I stop thinking about his death? I feel like I could have stopped it? Maybe I need therapy for feeling so guilty about things like this.
You have already done something. You feel guilt and/or shame. That's a form of atonement. You also told this "friend" how thoughtless their behavior was. Unless he has no emotions at all, I bet he is squirming a tiny bit despite sounding like a braggart. You are re-evaluating his status as someone you are willing to be around. You also came to an anonymous web forum to share the story "admitting" it to who knows how many people.
You didn't do nothing. The event made an impression and made you think about the net worth of a creature. All good stuff that will help you put it in its proper place in your memory. That squirrel probably means you won't ever be that careless in your own car.
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Hard to kill a squirrel on purpose with a car.
He would have had to swerve enough to pinpoint hitting such a small animal and then correct back to driving. ...... 
