I was having a spirited drive recently on one my local b/c roads. When out popped a rabbit and stopped, well a few clunks later it was dead.

I was relaying this to a guy in work, he shrugged and said 'yeah I did that with a deer once'

I kind of stopped, Deer are big. That must of slowed you down and reeked havoc?

His response: 'naa I was driving a tank' :wonder:

So it got me thinking, what have you gotten away with, close calls or whatever, I know Deer and the highlands are a real problem. Friends have had deer through the windscreen etc. Was on a double decker in Wales which didn't slow down for two sheep, actually smacked my head on the roof ( I was on the back seat as he went over them )

What tips do you have if you encounter an animal, anything other than a dog you can / should hit, i./e. don't drive into the ditch to avoid a rabbit, pretty sure I'd have a foot on the brakes with a deer dead ahead. Sheep respond poorly to horn blowing, normally by running back to the source of the sound.

I hit a rabbit on the way home a few years ago. Going too quickly to have safely avoided it so kept my foot down. Heard the clunk so pulled over to check for damage. Thankfully there was none so I wondered where the rabbit was. Few yards down the road there it was but surprisingly it was a clean kill, no blood or guts everywhere. It was a decent size too so stuck it in the boot and made some stew out of it

I was on a rural stretch of motorway close to home around 12 months ago. Had a car to my right and I was in the left hand lane with a car behind me.

A rabbit ran out and I had no option but to hit it, I was travelling at about 65mph and was driving a KA. Stopped at the next junction and had a look underneath! Completely ripped all the plastic trims of underneath and cost me a small bob!

But I guess at least it wasn't a cow or something lol.

I've hit many a rabbit with no problem. We have loads on our drive and they can be a PITA in the veg garden, so I used to actively attempt to squash them (at about 20 mph) I got quite good at it! I've also hit a badger, fox, pidgeons and once a black lamb at 30mph (it was fine!). My old Vauxhall Agila just shrugged it all off with it's high ground clearance!

All I've hit in the vRS is pheasant and it totally knackerd the front grille and surrounds.

A tree. Was dashing to the assistance of a work mate doing a job and he sounded in distress on the phone. So i headed at speed to his aid on a quad bike (with a cage fitted on for our protection from golf balls) and got to a turn and the front tyres decided not to. Ended up crashing into a tree, and which point I was thrown from it through the 'door' in the cage and rolled across the ground, whilst i looked back to see the quad bike on it's side, with the metal cage a big twisted heap half ripped off it..

To this day I've no idea how I didn't suffer any injury bar a few bruises and a stiff shoulder for a day... :no:

I hit a lampost outside the pub once, the lampost got away with a scuff, my car was screwed

Does that count ???

A Deer, about the Size of a Donkey. I was in my train mind you so no damage, I was doing about 65 MPH

Hit deer doing 60 mph at night ....smashed the radiator ....smashed the power steering .....lights got smashed....and just to make things really awkward it smashed the throttle linkage ...on full....

so its dark, no lights, windscreen covered in dirty water, steering so heavy I could hardly move it and full throttle....just managed to slow it a bit on the brakes, turned the ignition off and angled into a driveway, 400 yards after I hit the deer.......£4,500 of damage and that was a while ago

Only thing i've ever hit was a squirrel which ran on to the road into the other lane which was clear, it stopped and sort of stared me out, I was thinking stay there, stay there.

It timed it exactly to run back in from of me and commit suicide.

I was driving down a country lane once and a deer jumped over a hedge in front of me and I only just missed it. Nearly **** myself!

Once hit about 6 Gazelles at about 160mph.(Boeing 747)

I've had a few encounters with wildlife. The usual squashed rabbits (no way am I swerving for them) stupid Pigeons, even stupider Pheasants (they leave a big mess when they bounce off the windscreen), and slapped a cow in the face with a door mirror

Of more solid objects.... They say you should never look at what you want to avoid. Many years back I was trying desperately not to look at the telegraph pole I was trying to miss with an Astra. It was only a partial success, the pole went down the side of the car and a rock took out the suspension :(

I've hit a couple of deer - once in a M reg 328 BMW, when the deer came out of the fog whilst doing about 40 MPH, glanced off the front wing and disappeared into the fog. No damage done to the car. Second time was a couple of years ago in my Mondeo ST220 - the deer came dashing out from a gap in the hedge, hit the font of the car and was found lying in a ditch, luckily still alive. By the time I found a local resident to ask for his help and we returned to where the deer was breathing its last, it had gone. Slight damage to lower grill....

I've hit many a rabbit with no problem. We have loads on our drive and they can be a PITA in the veg garden, so I used to actively attempt to squash them (at about 20 mph) I got quite good at it! I've also hit a badger, fox, pidgeons and once a black lamb at 30mph (it was fine!). My old Vauxhall Agila just shrugged it all off with it's high ground clearance!

All I've hit in the vRS is pheasant and it totally knackerd the front grille and surrounds.

Do you mainly drive in fields? !!!

Constantly avoiding sheep on the brecon beacons road where they think it's comfy to sit on the concrete road instead of the grass.

Have hit plenty of rabbits in cars a few birds on my motorbike but biggest thing was a roe deer on my motorbike, just caught it's arse end so managed to stay on bike but the deer was a goner and did about £650 worth of damage and near filled my leathers.

In my old saxo I came across 2 badgers at the same time! That was seriously close!

I was driving along an A road quite late at night, going at 60, saw the first one run out from the left so had to quickly move over to the the centre of the road and then caught a glimpse of the second one feet in front. Had to swerve back to the other side, car had a bit of a wobble, but badgers weren't harmed or neither was I. My heart was in my throat at that moment!

My brother hit a badger in his 2 day old 206 and smashed the bumper and radiator!

So it got me thinking, what have you gotten away with, close calls or whatever, I know Deer and the highlands are a real problem. Friends have had deer through the windscreen etc. Was on a double decker in Wales which didn't slow down for two sheep, actually smacked my head on the roof ( I was on the back seat as he went over them )

What tips do you have if you encounter an animal, anything other than a dog you can / should hit, i./e. don't drive into the ditch to avoid a rabbit, pretty sure I'd have a foot on the brakes with a deer dead ahead. Sheep respond poorly to horn blowing, normally by running back to the source of the sound.

A fox, 95mph on the M6Toll. One broken wheelarch liner, one broken wheelarch spoiler, a bit of paint koncked off, fox **** all down the side, one very dead fox and a hell of a bang. Ran out between me and another car: caught a glimpse in the lights, then bang. Poor Foxy. SWMBO got a rude awakening.

Had a bird hit the windscreen once on the motorway, it was as if someone had thrown a balloon full of jam at the windscreen, the windscreen and roof were red with occasional feathers.

I also once hit a giant paper sack that was in the middle lane of the motorway, it turned out to be full of polystyrene chunks so no damage but it absolutely scared the crap out of me. I had to pull on to the hard shoulder and wait till my hands stopped shaking.

Also while driving a van a lump of concrete fell off a scaffolding wagon in front of me and went through the windscreen, fortunately it hit the very edge and the A pillar stopped entering the cab but it made a hole the size of my fist in the glass all the way through to the metal.

Edited 13 October, 201114 yr by trundlenut

I ran over a Jack Russell Terrorist in an astra van at 65 on a dual carriageway on the way into cardiff. Broke the front bumper, put a hole in the rad and scared the cr4p out of me, it went straight under the middle of the van, I though it was a goner but the tough little bar steward just went running off. Not even limping and no sign of blood either.

biggest thing I nearly hit on the M4 again by Cardiff J32 was a fold out tail lift off the back end of a Tesco Trailer. The driver nodded off and took a trip up onto the crash barrier and when the trailer went up it as well the tail lift caught on the uprights and just got riped off and spun out to the outside lane. I stopped 4 inches from it, the copper behind me stopped a foot off my bumper (no surprise there), the lorry driver? Why he just thought he had been over the rumble strip and carried on to Port Talbot or Swansea. I was really lucky but the wagon driver was even luckier as I thought the wagon was going to topple over.

Saddest one was when I hit a robin and it got stuck in the wipers on a Toyota Previa, I was late for work so didnt have time to stop to remove it. Damn thing was looking at me for the rest of the journey.

I got walked into by a cow once.. :wonder: there's a dairy farm at the end of my road and they transfer them from one field to another at least twice a day and sometimes they escape, came home at about 3 am one day and there was a cow chewing my front lawn, then it mindlessly ambled on through and bumped into my golf, poor thing scared the bejesus out of herself

I hit a fox once too, half of it went under the car and the other half came through the open sunroof. I couldn't eat for about 3 days after that it made me feel sick.

I seem to recall seeing a photograph on here a few years ago of somebody with an octavia that hit a pheasant, and it actually punched a hole in the front bumper and was still stuck in there with just it's tail sticking out, it was still alive and kicking too iirc

I hit a deer in a company car a few years ago. It died and I was close to it when I told my boss!

Whilst on holiday in Cyprus Me and the Mrs hired one of

those road legal open cockpit buggy thingies.

Whilst wanging along the coast (off road) at the maximum

design speed of 40mph I noticed a small bird swooping across

from my far right in my peripheral vision.

As we crossed paths it hit me square in the face.

Nearly ate some of it, feathers everywhere and it fell

to the ground. If I hadn't been wearing my sunglasses

it would have hit me directly in the eyes and I may well have crashed.

The moral of the story is simple,

Shades don't just make you look cool.

They save lives

Driving along in Edinburgh a tree jumped out and hit me. Halifax car insurance took a while figuring out whether the Octavia was a write off. Blocked the road for four hours but all I had to do to get out was open the driver's door, much to the amazement of the fire brigade.

Pheasents, rabbits, small birds....all no damage so far......side swipped a small dear in my old VW Polo (breadvan style) one year after passing my test..only knocked the front fog and scared the #### out of me!!! Have had to do very interesting driving once in winter doing 60mph in the morning (dark) around a corner to find two sheep in the middle of the road!!........thank god for EBC discs and pads and good tyres!!!! :S