The scene - road between Murraysburg and Beaufort West in the Karoo.

Speed - 120 kph +

Victims - 2 finches

What happened - they flew accross my bows - one just made it accross the other vanished below the centre of my bonnet line on a downward tragectory

My thoghts - Oh sh1t - I'm a murderer.

The outcome - Check my rear view mirror for feathers and there she is - casualy sitting in the road, spreads wings and flies on.

Must of been deliberate as if the downdraft had blown her into the road she would have been tumbling and she was sitting there so composed - never seen that before.

I had a white cavalier that some reason small birds always flew in front off, they weren't so lucky

My only road kill I know of is a bat that lay spreadeagled accross my Opel Manta front panel for 2 or 3 days. It looked awesome...

I hit a pigeon at high speed once. It just landed on the road in front of me, went under the car and must have got clipped by the exhaust or something.

Looked out the rear view mirror to see a perfect twin vortex of feathers in the middle of the road.

Oops.

Mike

I was doing 115mph through Germany about 2 years ago when a small deer ran across the motorway. Slammed on but my front left wing just clipped one of it's back legs at about 80ish...

Looked in the mirror to see it spinning around in the middle of the road before running off into the woods! The little bugger ripped some kind of plastic debris guard off the bottom of my engine...

I've whacked deer three times. Two were DOA's and the third was walking wounded... although I suspect that it was on borrowed time!

Also squished a badger, smacked a buzzard and minced dozens of rabbits. Ran over a snake once when in Croatia too.

Oh the horror (of living in rural Scotland).

i was driving off a roundabout late one night, and a rabbit ran out in front of me, nothing i could do.... heard it bounce 2 or 3 times along the bottom of the car, looked in my mirror, he got up and ran off. don't think he'd live much longer after that though

quote:

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Originally posted by scootz
I've whacked deer three times. Two were DOA's and the third was walking wounded... although I suspect that it was on borrowed time!

Also squished a badger, smacked a buzzard and minced dozens of rabbits. Ran over a snake once when in Croatia too.

Oh the horror (of living in rural Scotland).

---

I killed two dogs in one weekend once I couldn;t beleive it.

One was a gypsy dog that was chasing someone on a push bike, from a distance I thought it was some numpty taking his dog for a walk on his bike - but just as I went to overtake (duel carriageway) the guy on the bike lashed out and booted the dog under my front wheel!

second one was about 3am, a Black Staff ran out like a scolded cat between a row of parked cars - massive bang, as I didn;t have time to break from 30mph, if fact I barely saw it. Tried to run after it as it legged it off, but in ran into some bushes/parkland, and as it wasn;t a nice area, and it was 3am, I had to get back in the car.

I was so paranoid for the rest of that year, maybe longer, even dogs on leads I crept past.

The car got named K7 (Canine minus 2)

Round my way it's pheasants - they are SO DUMB!

quote:

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Originally posted by Dangle_kt
I killed two dogs in one weekend once I couldn;t beleive it.

One was a gypsy dog that was chasing someone on a push bike, from a distance I thought it was some numpty taking his dog for a walk on his bike - but just as I went to overtake (duel carriageway) the guy on the bike lashed out and booted the dog under my front wheel!

second one was about 3am, a Black Staff ran out like a scolded cat between a row of parked cars - massive bang, as I didn;t have time to break from 30mph, if fact I barely saw it. Tried to run after it as it legged it off, but in ran into some bushes/parkland, and as it wasn;t a nice area, and it was 3am, I had to get back in the car.

I was so paranoid for the rest of that year, maybe longer, even dogs on leads I crept past.

The car got named K7 (Canine minus 2)

---

About 10 years ago travelling south on the A1 a car in front of me clipped a rabbit. I guess it damaged its spine cos it was trying to run but its hind legs were dragging along behind.

I did the decent thing with 38 tonnes of volvo artic. I'm not a murderer, I'm a friend to small animals in need........

john

I've "done" two dogs too, first one ran across the road, I hit it, it bounced off using the momentum of the car and rocketed off ! A few minutes later I could smell sh**. After looking at the grille, the dog had crapped on the front grill as revenge ?

The second was a DOA, I slammed my mates Yorkshire Terriers head in the car door, "crack", accidentally of course

The squeamish friend I mentioned in the earlier post later swerved to avoid a rabbit and ended up slamming into a railway bridge in his Jetta, the passenger side just caved in. Fortunately he was the only one in the car and wasn't hurt (front wheel ended up in the passenger footwell!), but he sure felt stupid

[Edited on 12/3/09 by Mr Whippy]

I hit a small flock of swallows at 70mph in my open Citroen Special. Killed several but luckily none hit my head. They swooped down at the last moment, no time to react - very frightening.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dangle_kt

One was a gypsy dog that was chasing someone on a push bike, from a distance I thought it was some numpty taking his dog for a walk on his bike - but just as I went to overtake (duel carriageway) the guy on the bike lashed out and booted the dog under my front wheel!

---

I hit a squirrel once on my motorbike when mid way through a fast z bend. I swerved a couple of times to try to avoid it, but it kept changing its mind! I was all over the road after I hit it, so lucky nothing was coming the other way! I don't swerve now....

I also took out a very wet pigeon in the pouring rain at '70 officier' - split the screen of my car from side to side.
Hugh

quote:

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Originally posted by scootz
I've whacked deer three times. Two were DOA's and the third was walking wounded... although I suspect that it was on borrowed time!

Also squished a badger, smacked a buzzard and minced dozens of rabbits. Ran over a snake once when in Croatia too.

Oh the horror (of living in rural Scotland).

---

I once hit a load of rabbits in the middle of the night that made a bit of a mess. Also had a seagull fly into my Hilux Surf on the M25. A mate of mine hit a cow at about 60mph. It wrote his 205 off and the cow walked away!

Took a pheasant out on the bike a few years ago (no, not as a pillion ), doing about .... legal mph and it made the decision at just the right time

Head down, wait for the bang........it jus clipped the edge of the fairing and vapourised!!

Must have looked pretty impressive from behind

Going to work 4 am one morning cam around the corner (mk2 escort) and ran into a seagull. Broken bumper, smashed headlight and the bloody thing flew away.

Once saw one of them fly off a bin with a pizza box in its beak. Rock hard they are!

Nearly forget the sheep! Going down a road towards Pickering two up on a Z550 about 80 mph one ran across the road and got caught up under the engine. legs of lamb all ower the place

[Edited on 12/3/09 by coozer]

I hit and killed a fox a few years ago in my Civic. Made every effort to avoid the poor thing but it changed it's mind halfway across the road and darted back again. Stopped and checked it was dead and dragged it off the road into a field, would be pretty nasty to hit something like that on a bike.

I'm a bit of a softy when it comes to animals so I was a quite upset about it, only saving grace was that by some miracle the car survived with barely a scratch on it.

It's been my experience that if you are travelling at less than 120 kph you very seldom hit birds, they normally have time to swerve out of the way - the kill rate goes up significantly over 120 kph - just goes to show - speed realy does kill.

A guy I once worked with arrived with a very dead fox impaled on his front towing eye - he'd wondered why people seemed to be giving him odd looks on the way in. It had to be prised off with a spade. One of the other employees took it, as his hobby was taxidermy.

Pigeons "pop" in quite an amusing fashion if you manage to get them RIGHT under the front tire.

I wouldn't swerve to miss a dumb animal (and I include cyclists in that)

Cheers

Chris

heard a story of a fellow from here hitting a badger on his way to pick his misses up from a night out. Seems the people in town point a lot when you have a badger impaled on your towing eye.

Also worked with a bloke from cornwall, he had a dear jump over the guard rail on a duel carriageway at 2am. Hit it square on - no time to react. Barrel rolled down the road and in between the supports to a large sign. He was ok, car was totalled - dear's head was between the driver and passenger seat!

So far - i've been lucky, only pesky flys.

They towed one of Esso's Freightliners in one day at work, the whole front end was destroyed, brown furry stuff in the rad, pushed back into the engine. I asked what happened, seems there was a male Moose standing in the roadway in maiting season, driver blew the air horn and the Moose charged the truck, truck speed 80 MPH, Moose 20 MPH, high speed collision.

Was in the passenger seat when we took out a cow on the JHB to Durban road just outside Ladysmith. We were in a brand new Ford Seirra a week after they were launched.....company was not amused......panel beaters said thats the first Seirra they had in ended up reshelling it as they didnt have the specs and jigs to put a new roof on.

The back window blew out twice after that.....till Ford gave them a new beading. 120 kmph open passenger window and pop............

I dont understand why it i slegal requirement to stop if you hit a dog. Can they give evidence in court? Doesnt this reqt go back to days when you had to have a dog licenced?


I got an owl once. Weather was snowy, there looked like a big lump of slush in road in front, until i got close and it turned around and looked at me just before i hit it. Car in front must have dazed it - hence why it was sitting in the road.

Ive also ran over a badger but i think it was already dead. Had a mini with big bore exhaust, bits of badger were hanging off an exhaust clamp. Pleased it was lying down otherwise front end would have been a tad bent.