Poor snake . I understand it being startling to see it there. How sad that he didn't make it. Perhaps he was hit on the road and crawled away injured but didn't make it.

Devon, rat snakes are nonvenomous and are generally quite docile. We had a lot of black rat snakes in MO and they could get up to 6 feet long. I saw one going up a tree at a park once and he let me run my fingers along his back though he slithered up a bit faster when he felt my touch .