Do you swerve out the way for animals?

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
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Location
Lisbon, Portugal
I was passenger riding the other day when my sister was going around a busy roundabout. Note the word busy....


A pidgeons landed in the road infront of us and my sister swerved out the way and nearly caused a big accident, all because of a bloody flying rat.

I asked her why and she said

"Because pidgeons have feelings to"

purlease, she could have hurt a lot of people because of it.

And then last night whilst we were in my car, i was driving, going round some twisty lanes and funnily enough a pidgeon lands in the road, a car is coming the other way, so its

Pidgeon VS Car and the pidgeon lost. Looked in my rear view mirror and just saw a big flurry of feathers. my sister was going mental at me, and tbh even if there wasnt a car coming the other way. it was a twisty lane, i wasnt going to switch road sides for it. So would have carried on going straight.

If it was a rabbit, or pretty much any other animal, i probably would have tried to avoid it.


so do you swerve out the way for animals?
 
First of all... LOL. Pidgeons are dumb.

More on topic. I notice quite a lot of people do, they don't think and they are 100% sure they will go to hell if they hit the animal.
 
if i can see the view is clear and it's ok to do a slight swerve then yes but apart from that it's the animal that gets it i'm afraid. Not about to risk my own or anyone elses life.
 
Phate said:
I was passenger riding the other day when my sister was going around a busy roundabout. Note the word busy....


A pidgeons landed in the road infront of us and my sister swerved out the way and nearly caused a big accident, all because of a bloody flying rat.

I asked her why and she said

"Because pidgeons have feelings to"

purlease, she could have hurt a lot of people because of it.

And then last night whilst we were in my car, i was driving, going round some twisty lanes and funnily enough a pidgeon lands in the road, a car is coming the other way, so its

Pidgeon VS Car and the pidgeon lost. Looked in my rear view mirror and just saw a big flurry of feathers. my sister was going mental at me, and tbh even if there wasnt a car coming the other way. it was a twisty lane, i wasnt going to switch road sides for it. So would have carried on going straight.

If it was a rabbit, or pretty much any other animal, i probably would have tried to avoid it.


so do you swerve out the way for animals?
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lol you should have gone head on with a lorry to avoid the pigeon, so whilst you're both in hospital you can say to your sister "yeah we're disabled, but we saved that poor pigeons life" :D

Give you sister a slap, tbh. :D
 
I try and avoid collisions with wild animals but it's 70% instinct and 30% to avoid the mess/damage to my car. Don't really care about the animal itself.
 
squiffy said:
lol you should have gone head on with a lorry to avoid the pigeon, so whilst you're both in hospital you can say to your sister "yeah we're disabled, but we saved that poor pigeons life" :D

Give you sister a slap, tbh. :D
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well, she said

"Jake are you gonna move for that pidgeon?"
"no"
...getting closer....

"Jake!!!"

then i looked at her face whilst it went under and you heard to satisfying bumps.

I think i kind of enjoyed the fact in watching my sisters face contort with horror that i'd just killed an animal and didn't care for it at all

EDIT: just re read that and i sound a monster to people who havent met me :p I'm not like that it's just...its a bleedin pidgeon.
 
i have ran over some bird and another collided with the top right of my windscreen, ignored both of them tbh.
 
Basically, even if I wanted to run it over, I have always found that my natural reaction is to swerve, unless I know that its too late. Couple of nights ago a squirrel ran out infront of the car, and he had no chance so I just grit my teeth and went straight over him. I cant help but swerve most times, althought Ive never been in a situation where there has been oncoming traffic and an animal in the road. If that did happen I would most likely run the animal over.
 
I don't drive myself, however with friends it depends on how safe it is to avoid and what type of animal it is - I've had many a fine pheasant from such occasions :D
 
My mate was merrily bombing along in the lovely cambridgeshire country side. A pheasant run out in front of him. Normally he wouldn't think twice about splattering guts and bloody all over his car (its a vauxhall, he doesn't care). But his wife was in the car with him, and he didn't want her to think that he was a vicious animal killing maniac. So he swerve. Two wheels on the road, two wheels on the grass verge, and braking. Doesn't take a genius to realise that was never going to work. He lost control, spun the car off the road, and flipped it into a dyke. The pheasant was fine. He was fine. His wife had three broken ribs, and a mashed up face.
 
squiffy said:
Would you stop though? clear road behind you, and see a cute fluffy bunny and plenty of time to stop.
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If I had time to react then sure. I regularly slow for animals to give them more time to get out of the way. If something is just sitting in the road then there's no excuse for hitting it. It's the stuff that runs out of the verge right in front of you that causes problems.
 
Hell no. I usually brake for the kind of things that don't get out of the way eg pheasants, then just crawl along until it moves over. But around town most stuff just gets out of the way, and if it doesn't then I tend to run it over. If there's other cars around though I tend to just slow a bit and hope it gets out of the way.
 
squiffy said:
Would you stop though? clear road behind you, and see a cute fluffy bunny and plenty of time to stop.
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Definitely.. I wouldn't mow them down nonchalantly. If I could stop/swerve safely I would do so, but not if there was any risk involved.
 
I've seen two dead badgers in the last six months - one on the side of the road, one right in the middle. Both of them reached up to my bonnet (little car) and if I'd had hit one, my car would be totalled, no doubt about it.

But if it's hit an animal or cause harm to myself or another person, that animal is going down, no two ways about it.

But if there's no threat to human life, I'll do my best to avoid hitting an animal.
 
I have had near misses/hits with four animals:

1) Pidgeon - on busy dual carridgeway, pleased to say didn't even brake as I could have caused a huge accident if I had.

2) Deer on country road - driving my caterham seven at night. Put on the anchors hard missed it - just, could have killed myself as deers are big and heavy and v.dangerous at 60 mph.

3) Cat in Guildford - checked rear view mirror - clear - braked hard, cat got away unhurt.

4) Pheasent - flew out from hedge - never even saw it coming - seemd to have just been clipped and injured/broken wing. Killed it and ate it :D

All of these I was pleased with my instincts I reckon they were just about right !
 
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