The dangers of nightime driving in the country.......

Bad weekend for yours truly and the Mk1.

My wife and I were driving up to Suffolk late on Friday night to visit my mum for the weekend on a particularly dark and slightly twisty bit of the A12…..

Rounded a blind bend at about 40 only to be confronted with a swan flapping around in the middle of the road  8O . Sods law - as we came round the corner it decided to make a last bid for the safety of the verge and launched itself right into the path of the Mk1  :cry:

I jammed on the anchors but there was no way I was going to avoid it and we ended up running right over it. I managed to pull onto the verge a 100 yards or so down the road, and thankfully no one went into the back of me, but it was a very scary and unsettling experience. Luckily another driver, (golf driver incidentally), stopped and together we went back to check whether the swan had been killed or not. It had been killed outright, although we still had to move it off the road and onto the verge (not something I would care to have to do again anytime soon).

Put a bit of a downer on the weekend, and I also have damage to the front of the Mk1 as well….. just goes to show that the strangest things can happen when you are least expecting it.

Chris

Always nasty hitting wildlife in a car. I once had a blackbird get sucked under mine. Incredible amount of noise and not pleasant at all. Hope you get the car sorted soon.

Cheers,

Drew.

It does put a downer on things doesn't it!

I hit a cat in the lanes once. it was late at night and I was going home, pushing 60 through the lanes (I know them like the back of my hand…), came round a corner and saw a flash of yellow eyes on the side of the road - as you say, sods law, it tried to cross in front of me! I spun around and went back, though it had gone… gave me an awful feeling of guilt, even though there was nothing I could have done as it ran in front of me :dontknow:

I bagged a phesant once at about 70!, A crow on the motorway at 80 ish in my Mk1 Cortina and an I don't know what at about 50 cos it was gone when I went back!

I know it sounds daft, but I didn't realise quite how BIG swans were until this happened. The impact took out most of the drivers side spoiler. I guess we were lucky it didn't get airborne as I am sure if it had hit the windscreen instead it could have caused serious injury to both of us.

I guess maybe some things happen for a reason though - only a mile further down the road we came accross a bad accident that the police had obviously only just arrived at. A car was flipped over on one side of the road and there was still someone trapped inside by the looks of things  :cry: . I can't help thinking that if we hadn't had the incident with the swan and had been on that stretch of road 10-15 mins earlier we might have been unlucky enough to be at virtually that same spot where the overturned car was.

Like I say, not the best journey I have ever had!!!!

Chris

I sympathise… :tlc:  Glad you weren't hurt. I agree with the 'happened for a reason thing' too. Hope the repairs go well.  :wink:

A Pheasant at 70 sounds pretty bad news  8O . Was there much damage to the car?

Chris

I hit a pheasant in a volvo 850SE at 70mph.

Surprised me really, didn't think I'd feel anything in a Swedish Brick but it made a hell of a bang. Obviously no damage! to the car that is.

I once saw a bunny hanging down from it's head which was stuck in a grill. Sad, but funny.

Peter.

The Pheasant at 70 was in my MK3 16v - went straight through the lower air dam taking the temp sensor with it.  Eventually when I stopped I found one leg still sticking out :ick:

The worst was the bird on the motorway - Hit the windscreen right at the rear view mirror - made an almighty bang - didn't break the windscreen but pushed it back enough to bend the mirror stem  8O Miade a right old mess on the screen and roof - think the bird totally disntegrated :double ick:

Glad you were alright - cos anything that could make it through the windscreen is likely to be fatal.

I hit a pheasant at 70 in my GTI last year - scared the life out of me. Pheasant went up and over the car - I actually ducked in reflex. Put a very small ding in front of the bonnet, cracked my grill and removed my badge :roll:

My sick little brother took a picture of a Blue Tit that he hit in his polo, it got stuck to between the bonnet and grille. I'll post it up if you want!  

So far (touch wood!) the only thing I've hit was a mouse the other week, just saw it run into my path.. knew I hit it when it sounded like I ran over some crisps!

Glad you're both ok Chris - hope you get the damage sorted without too much fuss

I once hit a muntjack at about 70mph, ripped the deer to pieces but also took the front end off my car!!

Sounds like I got off pretty lightly to be honest. Even the spoiler damage looks pretty minor and they are not expensive to replace!

As Rich says I think it would have been a different story if it had actually managed to take off before we hit it. It wasn't until I went back to move it off the road that I realised how damn heavy the thing was   . It was a full grown adult and probably weighed as much as a small dog.

Gotta get the car up on the ramp this week to finally sort the exhaust blow - kinda hoping I won't be scraping bits of swan off the underside…….. :?

Cheers,

Chris

I have a mate who has done exactly the same thing three times but never to a swan - once in an Escort he hit a dear, another time in his girlfriends IFest (about a week later) another dear and in a Lancia Prisma…


…a combined harvester!!

Steve_Matthews said

once in an Escort he hit a dear

Not one of the blue rinse brigade I hope? :wink:

Cheers,

Drew.

glad you both are OK, and as it sounds you got away with it lightly really, i once hit a crow on the way to work - which was down a quick B road - at about 5am, as i got closer to him he took off just in time to hit the passenger side of the windscreen….. its amazing how you automatically duck out of the way and luckly there wasn't another car coming in the opposite direction as i'm sure i ended up on the other side of the road. The crow broke the windscreen and left a bird shaped dent in it. when the guy came to change the window he thought someone had thrown a brick at the car :?

I hit a blackbird in my Mk1 a few years ago - a tiny bird, smaller than a tennis ball, but it still managed to shatter the one-piece CL front spoiler into about 3 pieces.

At least it was killed instantly…

Is'nt fate a wonderful thing……… i would much rather hit a swan in my car than roll it………..

i hit a bird on the A34 last week……. i was doing a little over the speed limit and it smacked into the windscreen, blood and feathers everywhere, then slithered down and fell off, in typical girly style i stopped in next layby and threw up, and i'm sure that looked attractive……… but a very very nice man from the AA who was also in laybe washed my windscreen off for me………… the bonus of being blonde lol

 :cheer:
Mandy

A thread on roadkill what next?!