Roadkill - your stories

[Welly]

Driving back, and nearly home, from that Skegness at the weekend on a single carriageway and the car in front brakes (from 60mph) and does a little swerve; a Rabbit was darting left and right and then back into the rough on the nearside......only to make a break for freedom again right in front of me it woulda made the crossing if it hadn't sh*t itself at the sight of a fully laden Volvo with headlights on and just froze. I hit it square-on and heard it bump under the car and finally saw it tumbling down the road in the rear mirror 'something' had come off the poor thing too SWMBO understood it was either us or the rabbit on that sort of road and thoughts soon turned (literally) into the Chinese Takeaway we were about to order on-route

Thinking back I've had very few Roadkills in my driving career I think maybe 3 x small birdies and now 2 Rabbits.

Don't know why I posted this but it must happen to all of us at some point, feel free to tell yours.....

[jonsowman]

I ran over a squirrel once in my old D8 and it literally shredded it. Couldn't face cleaning it so I gave the guys at the local car wash an extra few quid for that one

[highlander]

The most I've killed / injured have been of the insect variety. One time, when I had the blue saloon, I drove down to Dunfermline to look at a 406 SRi 2.2, with a view to part-ex my 1.8 for this car - so I washed it before I set off, one summer's day.

By the time I got down there, I'd used almost a whole tank of windscreen wash because of the extraordinary number of kamikazee insects we encountered - everything from tiny midges to ping-pong ball-sized bees got splattered all over the windscreen.

Worse still, at the end of the journey, I got out and discovered the bonnet and front bumper were basically green with bug guts. Seriously, and no exaggeration - COVERED in bug goo.

Took it to a carwash and had some guy hose it down with a pressure washer.

Went and saw the SRi and it turned out to be a total lemon - dodgy electrics, flaky paint, a rattly, blowing exhaust, and an engine that kept revving up to 2500 RPM of its own accord on idle. Erm, no thanks. Went home. Fin.

However, according to the previous owners, my Coupe was apparently involved in the murder of a large badger. 60 MPH impact, destroyed the front bumper, smashed the radiator, bent some of the pipework, and I suspect this was the impact that also cracked the fuel rail. They got it fixed up under insurance (but miraculously this wasn't classed as a Cat C or Cat D...) and sold it a few months later as they were going to emmigrate to Canada. While the radiator and pipework were replaced with brand new parts, someone bodged the fuel rail with superglue, and it eventually started leaking. Thankfully I smelled it and got the rail replaced (cheap part, and easy to obtain) before CONFLAGRATION.

[benczuk]

Phat Ass Pheasant on the A30 while barreling down the hill at Lifton Down on the border in my previous '6

Boy what a bang, cracked the bottom of the bumper and took out two of the fog lamp mounts, but nothing too bad. had a few similar near misses since, pheasants seem to like running in front of me for some reason..

[OllieNZ]

A fallow deer, various small mammals and numerous birds. Some of the lads I used to work with managed to achieve what topgear couldn't and wrote off a hilux on a large red deer, apparently the venison was quite tender [emoji33]

[jonsowman]

A fallow deer, various small mammals and numerous birds. Some of the lads I used to work with managed to achieve what topgear couldn't and wrote off a hilux on a large red deer, apparently the venison was quite tender [emoji33]

I expect it was after it'd be tenderised by the front grill of a Hilux

[DaiRees]

I hit a sheep in my TallButt Solara a couple of weeks after passing my test. Was making good progress on an A road and crested the brow of a hill to find the daft bastard in the road. Very long skid culminating in a smashed headlight and grille and a load of sheep's blood and piss all up the bonnet. The sheep bounced up in the air and glanced the A pillar on it's way back down, absolutely soiled myself because I thought it was coming through the windscreen at one point. Pretty scary! That car was cast out of pig iron, it would have written off a more modern car.

Otherwise I've hit a couple of (feathered) birds in my time but nothing more to note. I did hit a dog on my pushbike when I was a teen (long before the days of routine cycle helmetage), launched me over the handlebars resulting in quite a bit of superficial facial damage .

I was also in the back of a mini that hit a horse on a mountain road one night, horse ran away, mini was a write off.

Speaking of write offs, I was driving to work on a dual carriageway early one morning when a Jag XJS that I'd just pulled out to pass dropped his anchors due to a rabbit running across the road, he fishtailed it a bit before spinning right round, slamming backwards into the left barrier then bouncing straight across the road and forward into the right barrier. All that time I was braking as heavily as I could without locking up while this scene of carnage unfolded before me, it was a proper "ohfuckohfuckohfuck" moment.

[steve_earwig]

Nothing of note really. A blackbird in the BX 16 Valve about 1995, it was him or the bus I'm afraid. He went pop! A sparrow on my bike about 2000, he flew across the front of me and impacted my left hand, breaking his neck, poor little guy. Just recently another sparrow but he'd already been hit and was fluttering about in the road, so I aimed for him to put him out of his misery. And that's it, as far as I know. Lots of insects of course.

I used to see a lot of little bunnies running about in the road coming back on the A414 when I was working nights, it's the rabbit in the headlamps thing though, turn your lights off and on again and they're gone.

[Welly]

I did hit a dog on my pushbike

A dog was riding your pushbike when you hit it?

When you said about the Sheep it reminded me of being behind the Rover 45 which hit a fooking massive Cow! that was quite a site I can tell you; flipped the thing over the roof and hit the ground horribly. Bloody thing was in a right state, as was the driver who couldn't talk through shock and I had to speak to the police. The Cow was meanwhile back on its feet and hobbling dangerously near my then new* Volvo; which I hastily moved out of the way in case it got Cowed, that's how caring I am see

[GingerMagic]

I have hit a badger whilst I was travelling at about 60mph, made quite a bang but my Renault 19 ( ) was unmarked.
I have hit many pidgeons which just explode on impact, and once while I was admiring the beauty and grace of a Buzzard, watching it swoop down etc - the bugger came right at me. I hit it square on with the front of my lorry which actually broke the bonnet and bent the gas struts behind it - double hard bastard..
Oh, and I drove over a man with a mental illness that tried to top himself by jumping in front of the lorry - he didn't die though, just lost his arm, does it count?

[steve_earwig]

Christ! Do you still have nightmares?

I ran over a squirrel once in my old D8 and it literally shredded it. Couldn't face cleaning it so I gave the guys at the local car wash an extra few quid for that one

I'm sure I posted this before My dad had a similar experience before I was born [GRIMNESS WARNING] only it was a man. My dad was driving his GPO van when a guy walked from the middle of the road right in front of him. My dad swerved to avoid him but he then walked back to where he was in the middle of the road. Unfortunately this was the direction my dad was now heading and far too late to do anything else about it. His colleagues cleaned the van up while my dad was in hospital being treated for shock.

I suspect I'd never want to drive again.

[Doggy]

I'm lucky enough never to have had that sort of experience in something like a million miles.......

I remember running over an ickle baby wabbit, despite my best efforts to avoid it and seeing it in the mirror still trying to run despite its back end being smeared flat on the tarmac.
So I stopped, walked back and finished it off, then had to wait nearly an hour for the police car that was now parked in front of mine to sod off, cause I had a seriously leaky/noisy exhaust that I 'd already been advised* to have fixed.

[teamster1975]

About 17 years ago I was out on my bike and a muntjac shot out and managed to get between the front and back wheel. I was only doing 35 odd but the back end jumped and I did have my brown trousers on!

[Bailes1992]

On Thursday morning, very early hours in the morning just a few weeks after passing my test I was driving back from an evening/night in Rhoose. I decided to take the coast road home. It's a superb bit of tarmac, a few straights with some nice sweeping bends. Even these days I love driving down it when it is quiet.
So... this Thursday morning I'd gotten back into St.Brides and decided to drive down the B4524 past Ogmore-By-Sea, which funny enough is right by the sea. I was in full racing driver mode, clipped the apex of a sharp left hand bend and started to feed the throttle back in as I let the car run wide. There was a sheep on the side of the road who promptly looked me in the eye and stepped out into the road. He hit my headlight, bounced up and landed on my bonnet. I slammed the anchors on and he slid off onto the road. Had a massive dent in my bonnet after that!

[john170277]

I squashed a whopping great frog this morning
many years ago I got a moggie when driving a 7.5t truck that made a nice mess of the underside with its innerds splattered all over
several rabbits and pheasants but nothing bigger thank god