Driving late last night on an unlit dual carridgeway I saw something in front that looked like a paper bag but when I got closer it was a rabbit and there were one or two others coming onto the road. So I swearved into the second lane just about missing the crash barrier on the outside, could have been a nasty one but luckily wasn't (any bunny was saved).
So what do backroomers think, should a driver take avoiding action as there isn't any time to think about it ?
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They say that you shouldn't as a bunny is...dare I say expendable - at least compared to a human but if I saw one and the road was empty I would swerve.
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Adam
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Never swerve to avoid a bunny, no matter how much you like them. If it were me and ther was nothing behind you, I'd probably brake in a straight line and manourvre around them. As I've found out, bunnys are notorious for jumping into your path as you're trying to get round them.
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No time to identify, it might be a much loved cat next time. So take action - possibly brake rather than swerve, experience is all in these cases.
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Where I live (rural Cheshire) they wait at the side of the road and then all hop out in front of you as come driving along. It's hard not to swerve but on the lanes you'd soon end up through a hedge etc.
Mate of mine did almost £1k worth of damage to his car (think it's a Galaxy) when one sat up in the road and he broke the frony bumper.
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Carl a said:
"So I swearved into the second lane just about missing the crash barrier on the outside,"
Does that mean you hit the barrier? :)
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I swerved went onto the grass a bit but missed the barrier, I hit a duck about 9 months ago and didn't even flinch when I saw that, it hit the wing mirror (cost £16) the bird felt it more than I did. Perhaps it was the nice cute fluffy rabbits that made me swerve.
My spellings getting worse, I must remember to read my posts before pressing the postage message button.
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My then driving instuctor told me, that u shouldnt brake or swerve 2 avoid a small animal like a bunny as mentioned, but if its something like a say.....poodle or even a deer, then use ya brakes to avoid a very hefty repair bill 4 ya pride & joy or 4 the sake ov ya passengers!!
He also told me bout a young guy who took his test 1day along a country lane near High Wycombe, a wot appeared to be a squirral ran across his path, he braked so suddenly that he gave the examiner a bad whiplash & the test had to be terminated for safety reasons!
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I did swerve to avoid a fox recently.
I nearly rolled the discovery in the process and the fox was less fortunate.
Ironically it must have looked like I was swerving to hit it as my avoiding manovre was time just right to coincide with its decision to leg it accross the road.
H
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Here in Australia we get cockatoos on the road at harvest time. The grain trucks spill wheat and the cockies come down to feed on it. If you hit one you can break a windscreen. I usually brake, flash lights and sound the horn all at once. I don't swerve though. Usually that is enough to scare them off. Mind you this is in the day time. At night it is foxes and kangaroos and they are big enough to do serious damage.
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I hit pheasants on my way to work quite frequently. What's the point in risking your life (and other people's) to save a bird just so it can be blown to pieces with a shotgun in a few days time?
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I have hit a fox at night and damaged the car number plate, pheasants are regularly despatched and bunnies are easy targets.
I remember a road near Loch Tay in Scotland a few years ago when there must have been 50 dead in the space of a mile.
I never brake for them - ever, SWMBO says poor bunny or whatever but I prefer to run em over than end upside down in a ditch.
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I think swerving to avoid obstacles is more often than not more dangerous than risking superficial damage by going over something.
When I was a schoolkid, our school minibus was in a crash where the driver slowed down because there was a swan on the road and an HGV hit them, killing the lad sat in the rear seat. :-(
Recently there was a story in the local paper about how some kids had, for a laugh, put a 'men at work' temporary roadsign in the middle of a wide street, hitting this sign would have bearly scratched a car's bumped but 2 17yr old girls returning from a night shift were killed when the driver swerved to miss the sign and hit a tree. :-(
My own experience backs up the "don't swerve" theory, I was towing a heavy trailer, and came across a dead deer in the road, and definitely knew not to swerve or brake, and had visions of some expensive damage, but at least not crashing. There were three very loud bangs (front wheels impacting, rear wheels, and then the trailer wheels), but there was absolutly not damage to car or load....
My own Rule-of-Thumb: Hit anything smaller than a Cow. :-)
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I generally swerve to avoid small animals when I can safely do so, however when driving into Swanage a couple of years back I squashed a squirrel. ( I call them tree rats, but never mind).
It seemed a better option than swerving into the path of the oncoming lorry to me; but every time we pass that spot ( roughly once a month) the kids chorus "that's were daddy killed the poor squirrel" blooomin kids....:-(
My 'best ever' drive through the New Forest one dark, wet morning, over the 8 miles before I pick up a decent road, was having to swerve round the following :- 1 fox, 1 pheasant, 2 red legged partridges, 1 west highland terrier, 2 donkeys, 1 cow & 3 ponies.
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It's badgers that worry me.
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In three and a half years of commuting through the New Forest I've only ever seen one of you bretheren, luckily it shifted out of the road, away from my car, at a surprising rate of knots!
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If it has stripes then avoid it at all costs.
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I have seen two dead badgers in the last month by the roadside and one squashed on the local by pass - it really is frightening but you have to steel yourself not to swerve.
I would take care Badger when crossing the road if you come to my part of West Sussex if I were you ....
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It's zebra crossings that frighten me.
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Now we see you Badger - now we don't - now we see you etc etc ad infinitum.
Anyway a Zebra is just a horse whose forgotten to take his pyjamas off.
Speaking of horses - I saw a horse which had been hit and killed by a car a few years ago and its not a sight I want to see again.
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I turned into a country road near Newbury and it was literally alive with rats. I stopped while they made their getaways.
Some years back a colleague's wife was killed when a horse jumped over the hedge from his field and landed on the roof of the Merc.
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Seriously, and this point has been amde before, if you injure a badger do not go near it. It could take your arm off.
Dead right, your HJship.
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stuff the wabbit
boil it, like that blonde haired bird in Fatal attraction !
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Stuffing it's the tricky bit.
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If it had all gone wrong then you would'nt be able to sue the bunnie.
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And what about those pheasants. They have to be the most stupid things on the road. All of them have a death wish, and when hi they get so mangled they are not worth the game pot.
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hit a badger years ago wrote the car off they are seriously solid animals the car was fibreglass but still the damage was totally mental looked like i'd hit a wall at a fair speed...cheers...keo
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We know where you live . . .
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We know where you live . . .
East Northamtonshire. Cant drive anywhere without seeing Brock Marmalade.......
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They have to be the most stupid things on the road
What have you got against peasants? Sorry --just read it again.
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The way I see some rabbits will run away, some will let me run over them. I say just run them down. It's natural selection in action. The offspring of those which are smart enough to run will also run, those which get run over won't get the chance to procreate passing on their stupid genes.
In a few generations they'll all have the sense to run away.
I remember as a child my dad hit a pheasant but didn't run it over. He stopped, knowing a good meal when he saw one and put it in the boot. A couple of miles down the road the bird miraculously revived and kicked up an almighty kerfuffle in the boot. I remember feathers coming through the vacant speaker hole in the parcel shelf. Dad being a pragmatic country chap stopped the car, opened the boot and wrang the pheasant's neck.
I never swerve for anything but always remember that when one deer jumps across the road in front of you another will surely follow.
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>> They have to be the most stupid things on the road What have you got against peasants? Sorry --just read it again.
Them as well
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You drive in France too much.
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What about wallabies? I used to encounter them now & again when I lived near Dunstabubble. Swerve or splat?
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For every problem there is a solution.
Fit an ultrasonic whistle which gives out a high frequency sound only audible to our little creatures giving warning on the approach of a motor vehicle so that they can get out of the way.
Easily fitted cost 8 quid (including p and p) from
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Hedgehog House
Dhustone
Ludlow
SY8 3 PL
www.tes.co.uk/2032366
DVD
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