Just had my first animal near miss....eek

iamtheoneneo

iamtheoneneo

iamtheoneneo

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As the title suggest, was driving back from bournemouth at the weekend and not only did my partner almost get us killed on the motorway driving there (almost ran into the back of a car changing lanes) , on the way back some stupid pheasant decided it would be a good idea to run in front of the car when i was about 2 metres away, lucky the dual carriage was pretty clear so i swerved just missing it, only for the bird to be hit by the car behind.

i know its only a bird and its death was in the end out of my control but its a bit of an experience that leaves you a little shaken up.

anyone else had some harrowing experiences of animals and their cars?
i know they say the best thing to do is not swerve but man when theirs a living thing in front of you, i dont think you can help it. :(
 
pheasants really are stupid, they're lovely looking things but dumb as hell

my brother said he hit about 30 in one day before (in a tractor on the road)
 
Partner? Are you a police officer? :p sorry, it irritates me a bit when people call their wife/girlfriend/boyfriend their partner, it just sounds.. weird

Anyway yeah wildlife can be a bit dumb, I've hit numerous birds and a deer once, the main thing is as you said not to swerve, as unless it's a horse or a cow or something you'll probably end up coming off worse than if you just kept going.
 
My dads taken out god knows how many pheasants driving to work. The roads littered with them apparently.

A mate of mine took out a badger in his car at 80mph, you should have seen the front end of it, i was surprised it was still drivable. He didn't much like me asking about getting a shaving brush out of it :D
 
weekend before last my sis managed to kill a rabbit and a deer the following day. apparently the deer wasnt dinner worthy afterwards
 
Pheasants get even more stupid when they are in season, the amount of times I've had near misses is just a bit of a joke.

If my dad hits them he'll go grab them and take them home for tea, personally I'm not a big fan of road kill :x
 
To be honest, you're better off hitting the pheasant so long as it isn't trying to fly off...although if you have a flimsy car it might break some of it, they are quite solid.

Swerving can lead to more serious accidents like ploughing into a barrier or something silly. You life > Pheasant's life....same goes for most wildlife really. Apart from the bigger ones that might go through the windscreen. :p

Sp00n said:
If my dad hits them he'll go grab them and take them home for tea, personally I'm not a big fan of road kill :x
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That's illegal. The next car coming is allowed to pick it up, but the car that hit it isn't.
 
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Where I live, Road Kill in the from of Pheasants and Rabbits is a common occurrence - do not feel for the stupid animals that deemed themselves brave enough to venture out onto the highway, feel for the poor car thats just had its bumper mangled or arches filled with guts.
 
So far I have only road killed one pheasant, it almost lived but managed to smack the refridgeration unit on the top of the van. At first I thought it had got wedged between the roof of the van and the unit as I didn't see it in my mirrors. The most irritating creatures to bestow some of the lanes round here are partridges. There is never one, its always a group of the ruddy things that insist on running down the road instead of flying off. I think the worst road kill I have seen was from a colleague who had the misfortune of a pidgeon flying in through an open window at speed and no exit :D
 
A pheasant bounced off my soft top once.

I killed a blackbird too last summer. It went into the front radiator grill - was not pretty. Somehow though I did not mind clearing up the mess because it could have been 1mm to the left and destroyed a ton of fibreglass bodywork.
 
Living in the sticks animal encounters happen daily. Ones that stick in my mind are:

Driving down the A286 in Chichester, a badger runs out and gets hit by the car in front. It flipped up in the air and I slammed my brakes on, it's head landed in between my front wheel and wheel arch and I had badger brains splattered everywhere - sticky stuff. Reported to local police.

Managed to hit a pheasant (**** hehe) at 70+; it's head speared the radiator on my old fez and smashed up the front.

Almost hit a fully grown grey/white stag with huuge antlers but for some reason I had my full beams on and managed to stop about 6 feet from it; felt like minutes passed as it gazed down at me then it slowly moved on into the night passing me the odd glance.

Pheasants, partridges, rabbits, hares (make a loud bang!), stoats etc.. always seem to aim for me. I will stop or avoid where possible but will not swerve into oncoming traffic.
 
Closest call I've had was a fox sleeping in the middle of the road about 1.00AM, I didn't even realise it was an animal - it looked like a sainsburys bag until I was about 3m away - luckily this fox saw me got up and legged it across the road :p If it hadn't been so quick it would be pretty dead :p
 
Had a near miss with Bambi, killed a few pigeons and rabbits. Also hit a bat which I assume was a gonner afterwards.

Had two Pheasants fly into the side of my car before. That gives you a shock because you have no warning just *BANG*
 
Lost count of the rabbits, pigeons and pheasants killed in the car on the morning (5:00am) route down the lanes to work. They all stay on the road in the summer as it retains the heat.


Shredded a pheasant on the bikes front wheel and killed loads of rabbits on the way to work also with it.
 
When i was a kid i remember a dog running out from a field on a country road, straight under the car my dad was driving :( Pretty shocking experience, it's head cracked the numberplate and bumper and i can still see it disapearing from infront of us. No idea how it survived but it sure was damn lucky.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
i cant even imagine how scary hitting a animal on a bike must be, the potential for a fatal accident must be through the roof.
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Was quickly browsing the "tube" looking for what I think was a traffic cops episode where an unlucky biker is bullseyed by a pheasant and found this.


About 50 seconds in. Still looking to see if the clip I was looking for is online.
 
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