I've just ran over a pheasant :(

[lexiepix]

On a narrow country lane, doing 50, they usually move out of the way but this one stayed right in the middle.

It made such a thud, a huge cloud of feathers afterwards and I've just been picking the feather out of my grill.

I had no idea what way it was going to go so didn't swerve, also I didn't break much as expected it to move as they do 1000s of times before.

I'm feeling really shit about it. Am I a total cunt for not slowing or swerving?

[ginghambingham]

A long time ago, I used to have to sit through inquests as part of my job. I'd say at least half of the fatal road traffic accidents I heard about were people who'd swerved to miss pheasants and bunnies.

Don't feel crap. If you'd swerved, you could have died. Pheasants are beautiful things, but they're not worth dying for.

If it makes you feel better, I killed a crow on a driving test once. The examiner told me to drive on, so I did and I squished it. Then I failed for taking both hands off the wheel as I shouted, "Oh no!".

[coalscuttle]

In fact I can't think what you could possibly have seen that involved horses, plus fours, landrovers and spaniels in August in the Cotswolds?!

[coalscuttle]

I did a speed awareness course recently and they told us that something like 80% of accidents happen on urban and suburban roads at 30mph zones but 60% of deaths happen on rural roads in national speed limit roads. Although they think mainly due to the fact that it takes longer for someone else yo cone sling and raise the alarm

[fizzycolagurlie]

On a narrow country lane, doing 50, they usually move out of the way but this one stayed right in the middle.

A lot has changed since you wrote this. I think you thought it was funny and then when people pulled you up on the speed for a narrow country lane you tried to convince everyone it was in fact an A road and even went so far as to photograph it - god almighty, that's the big joke.

[Abra1d]

I killed a fox once, driving on the A3. It ran out onto the carriageway at night. My husband could tell that I was instinctively going to swerve and gently told me not to. I hit it squarely and probably killed it almost instantly as it was on a 70mph section and that is what I was doing.

[SistersOfPercy]

I've told this on here before...

Middle of the city, rush hour on a friday afternoon and I hear a rhythmic 'thump, thump' in the traffic. Driving down the road (slowly because it's rush hour) is a woman in a red car with a whole pheasant firmly implanted somehow between bumper and wheel arch. With every turn of the wheel the pheasant is hitting the bodywork, causing more damage and the rhythmic thumping noise.
Several people tried to get her attention but she was completely oblivious. To this day I'm baffled as to

1. How she'd hit a pheasant in the middle of the city
   
2. Even if she'd come from countryside she'd have had to have driven at least 6 miles with it stuck where it was
   

and

1. How the hell did she not realise something was a bit 'off' with the steering for potentially six miles?
   

Very weird.

[FreudiansSlipper]

kangaroos are stupid too

you see lots of dead ones next to the road in Australia

and while driving on a track through a wood one hopped in front of us and just stared I was terrified it was huge quickly wound up my window then it hopped away

got to love MN and those who can not help but pick and pick a story apart not matter what it is about

[Feckeggblue]

I think the posters here don't have any understanding as to how speed limits are set. Transport research in this country is excellent (hence we have some of the safest roads in he world) speed limits are set based on historical data and current circumstances for THAT road. And they know far more than the posters here. It would be astoundingly arrogant to argue otherwise.

[EveDallas]

I'm even more embarassed coalscuttle, it wasn't even August, it was around this time of year, so I've got the total wrong end of the stick there! Whenever I heard Glorious 12th I thought it meant Pheasant shooting

[lavendersun]

Never mind Eve , worst things have happened on this thread - like the 'poor pheasant', 'you are disgusting OP' and all the , , stuff.

[lavendersun]

worse

[fizzycolagurlie]

From this site: knowledge.allianz.com/mobility/transportation_safety/?2728/Lowering-speed-limits-rural-roads-to-improve-road-safety-UK

“Because there is less traffic, some drivers feel a false sense of security on rural roads,” says Sarah Martin from road safety charity Brake, which works together with Allianz in the United Kingdom. “Crash statistics show that, per mile travelled, rural roads such as the A537 are the most dangerous places for all kinds of road users, and the majority of vehicle occupant deaths happen on these roads.”

[Custardcream14]

Shame, it'd have tasted great.

[lavendersun]

Not terribly useful without seeing how their stats were collected. As a mathematician I take most things with a pinch of salt unless I can read further and see for myself.

They go on to describe the road as "The seven-mile stretch of tarmac winds its way through the Peak District National Park. Bounded by dry stone walls or bare rock faces for the most part, its sharp bends, uphill climbs and steep falls from the carriageway make it nine times more risky than the average ‘A’ road, the report says."

What is the level of use compared to the average A road, is it the only decent road in town, is it the only route for farm traffic and haulage lorries/heavy loads, etc., etc.. So it could be the most dangerous rural A road in Britain because it is the busiest rural A road of its type - a quote like that means nothing on its own.

The point is that currently the NSL applies to these roads and that is what we do if conditions are favourable. Lowering the limit on the road OP was on wouldn't have 'saved' the pheasant as the odds on lowering it below 50mph are nil.

[SuperFlyHigh]

No you're normal! My mum ran over one years ago when we were kids and on way to friends and got stick for ages from my stepdad about not picking it up to eat it! Ugh!

[SuperFlyHigh]

Another pheasant story when I was a teenager a friend of my DB's had a DF who went on shoots beating the pheasants out. Anyway said friend offered free pheasant to my stepdad almost weekly....

They were hung normally in leanto but one dark night I came home from college and came across one hanging in the porch outside the front door dripping blood out of a hammer horror story, my brother was inside in the hall and I heard him cackling at my screams.... Evil sod!

[QTPie]

When I was a child, my parents lived in a village (so driving up and down narrow country lanes all of the time). They hit LOADS of pheasants and even a couple of deer :(. (nond of it intentionally). Sadly it is a common occurrence in the countryside...

I was driving through the countryside today and saw the remains of a do that only made it half way across the road. RIP

[Taz1212]

I would drive 50mph on that road.

Poor stupid pheasant but I can't talk because we went through a period where I swear our car was a creature magnet. The worst was a deer that was standing on a hill next to the motorway. The stupid thing decided to dash into the 70mph traffic, hit the car in front of us and then bounced towards (dead, I assume) us like a football, onto the bonnet and windscreen before rolling off. I was pregnant at the time and screamed, "brace!" at DH as I watched this deer bouncing along the motorway towards us.

We spent weeks picking bits of deer out of that car.

[littlebillie]

I narrowly avoided one today you were probably behind me it was dithering

[SayraT]

We had one stuck in the front grill of the car a few weeks back. Some drivers flashed at us (we hadn't realised it was stuck) so we pulled over, wrung its neck and had it for dinner later that week.

We were on a A road and I don't know what speed we were travelling at, probably 50-60 mph.

As an aside, this is a narrow (have to pull into passing places or off the road if another car comes along) country road I sometimes drive on. On certain stretches I will do 50-60 mph as visibility and the condition of the road is very good. On some country roads it is safe to drive faster, on some it is not.

[ARoomWithoutAView]

Amazing SayraT just love your post..... great stuff...!!
Like one of those Tom Cruise action films, must have been lots of camera play.
At 50-60 miles an hour, other cars doing what maybe 30 coming towards you....combined speed of..what....... 80 mph.
Which gave them time to see said pheasant, relative small and insignificant on your grill, grill on your car. Like this occurs so frequently so they are waiting to flash... and you saw them flash........ in all that time.
You made it up. IMO anyway.

[SayraT]

ARoom when I find the picture (on a different phone which isn't here) I will post the picture of the pheasant stuck. The other drivers saw it since it was flapping about (I assume) but it was too low for us to see from the car. We thought we'd just missed it.

I am going back home tomorrow (where phone with picture is) so I will post it then if I find phone.

[ARoomWithoutAView]

Thanks SayraT, I just wanted to see the pictures. I cannot believe it.
So excited....just cannot believe it....:)

And so bored.

[GallicIsCharlie]

These are pheasants. They're not small, insignificant things that other drivers wouldn't notice plastered over your radiator.

[GallicIsCharlie]

(I thought you might be excited by more photos, Room )