People running over birds in their cars

[Magicpaintbrush]

AIBU that for the sake of a 10 second delay that impatient arsehole drivers could just wait for birds who happen to be walking about in the road to actually fly out of the way rather than driving straight over them? Birds don't understand what cars are, sometimes it takes a moment for the penny to drop that there is danger, especially pigeons who are a bit dim. Yes it's annoying, but for the sake of a few seconds or just hooting your horn why run the poor things over? I keep seeing this happen, and there is a squashed pigeon in the road right next to where I'm parked that wasn't there this morning. It's totally avoidable.

Grew up in pheasant country. One flew directly into my windscreen on a dual carriageway. Smashed my windscreen, and I was bloody lucky not to crash the car (was the middle of the day, so thankfully not much traffic).

Birds can be bloody dangerous. Nobody runs over them on purpose.

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

YABU

my teacher said that if it's a choice between hitting an animal or putting yourself or others in danger you should hit the animal.

nobody sets out to murder squirrels, pigeons etc while driving. but it happens, regrettably.

The poster is explicitly saying when it ISN’T a choice between those two things and several people on this thread have said they’ve witnessed people driving at animals on purpose, when there was plenty of opportunity to safely slow or stop.

You're getting quite a bit of flack here, but I agree with you. I have also seen people who see a bird on the road ahead and do not attempt to slow down. It's awful.

Just as bad is people who leave the animal injured in the road. What an awful way to die, just waiting for another car to hit you. I've picked up quite a few animals from the road which other drivers have just been driving around . A lot of people really lack empathy.

Highway Code says not to deviate for animals in the road but to drive straight at them as it's safer for other road users. I always slow down or swerve if it's safe to do so but I wouldn't do this with a load of traffic following me. It could cause a pile up and a bird is a small sacrifice to avoid killing a person.

"What about insects? Do you drive so as to avoid squishing them all over your car too?

They're living creatures that are killed when our cars hit them."

Er.....well I'm afraid if a mosquito flew into my car I wouldn't be able to see it coming because of its size, it would be virtually invisible.... though if there was a bird in the road then I would see it . I have respect for all living things, but sadly if it's of microscopic size and moving at high speed then there's very little I can do. Does that help ?

I agree in principal

But in practice, how can you be sure the driver saw the bird? Something as small as a bird is likely to be in a driver’s blind spot as their bumper is higher than the bird.

I find it hard to believe that the majority of drivers sadistically plough their cars over birds, as opposed to not knowing the bird was there or not being able to stop in time (eg if they may cause an accident)

@D0D0

not in her first post

cba to rtft

I agree with you completely. I’ve encountered the self absorbed “Who cares it’s just a bird!” type (usually teenage boys) and then there’s the ruthless psychopaths who deliberately accelerate. I was driving by a well respected man in town and was shocked and angry to see that instead of slowing down or swerving for a seagull on his side of the road, he got this murderous look on his face and sped up purposely running over the seagull. Plenty of space. No car behind him. Yes there are certain situations where there is no choice but there are people out there who delight in acts of cruelty and feel entitled to carry them out.

it's just that people not slowing down even a fraction to give the creatures time to get out of the way when I can see clearly that the situation is such that it would have been safe to reduce their acceleration a little

You might be able to "clearly see" that it's safe for them to slow down, but you're not in their position in the driving seat of their car, are you? Can you make room for the possibility that their perspective might differ from yours and they might prefer to be cautious?

Also, you don't know what else these drivers could see from their perspective that might explain their actions - their choice to keep going might have avoided a huge accident, and you would never know.

It's obviously sad to see dead animals and birds, but I think you're being a bit judgemental to assume that the drivers are wrong for making the choices they made purely because you think you would make different ones in their situation- in reality, you have no idea whether you'd have the same knowledge as to whether it's safe to slow down from the driver's perspective.

Where I live there is all manner of wildlife crossing the road or faffing about in the road, especially pheasants who are the stupidest creatures ever and who like to run in front the car as opposed to dive in a ditch.

Yes, I slow when I can but often I don't because I can't and then they are under my car and I have no idea if I've run them over or not.

I have to say OP... I have never thought that people deliberately run them down!

I've never been aware of people carelessly running over birds. Usually it is unavoidable for safety reasons.

I've never hit a bird, even when I think I'm about to and close my eyes they always fly off in time. I really don't think it can be as common place as you think. Especially in residential streets with speed bumps. Far more likely the bird was already dead or injured in the road, perhaps by a cat.

Yep, arseholes.

There seems to be an hierarchy, though. Mummy duck/swan with ducklings/cygnets, ahhhhh! All traffic stops, phones appear and photos are taken.

Pigeons, jays, crows and most of all seagulls (if you’ve seen seagulls in their natural habitat, picking shellfish from outcrops you’ll know how spectacular they are. Not so much in Morrison’s car park, apparently) they can all just F off and die, it seems.

Same with squirrels. Greys, total bastard getting in my way. Reds: OMG, can I get a selfie with it?

It’s bloody weird. Life is life.

Worst are Muntjacs (a type of young deer)

I know three people who have had extensive damage done to their cars by muntjacs jumping out of the hedge in front of them. Now that is a horrible thing to happen because they end up killed and the damage and shock is awful.
They cause 42,000 accidents a year

You are right OP.
People need to drive more slowly, especially at night.
Take a bit more care and save a life.

@bitheby

Highway Code says not to deviate for animals in the road but to drive straight at them as it's safer for other road users. I always slow down or swerve if it's safe to do so but I wouldn't do this with a load of traffic following me. It could cause a pile up and a bird is a small sacrifice to avoid killing a person.

Which rule?

[quote ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba]@D0D0

not in her first post

cba to rtft[/quote]
You don’t have the RTFT. Just the OPs posts.

Just before I took my driving test we were on the way there and I stopped as there were birds in the road, it was perfectly safe to do so. My instructor told me if I did that in my test I would fail.

I can honestly say, in 35 years of driving and 53 years of walking that I have never seen a motorist deliberately run over a bird of any size or type.

A squirrel began a kamikaze run across a main road three cars ahead of me last weekend, first car missed it, I had a plan if I got to it, but it bloody dog-legged under the wheel of car two who had also slowed but because of that and the dog leg hit it and I inadvertently finished it off.

My DSIS lives in a deer county and they are fecking lethal.

"Is that a car? cmon let's play chicken"

Can I emergency stop for an animal?
You can stop for an animal, providing you don’t cause danger to any other motorists.
If you swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting a small animal and cause an accident you’ll be liable.
This applies to emergency stopping. The main rule is not to put other motorists in danger. So if you emergency stop and the car behind runs into you, you may be liable.
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However it could be argued that they may have been an improper distance away from you. It does all depend on the scenario. Generally though if you’re putting another motorist in danger, don’t emergency stop.

Followed a car once that went over a pigeon. It looked like he’d get away with it and then poof! cloud of feathers.

I can’t believe some people have never killed anything. I’ve been driving since 1995 and I’ve hit rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, a hare, a stoat, a barn owl and very nearly a muntjac. I didn’t mean to hit any of them, they just leapt out.

The hare was quite upsetting, as someone said above it doglegged back on itself as I attempted to drive round behind it and I went straight over it.

The owl was awful. It was night time and it was on the side of the road. It took off over what I assumed to be the bit it could see, ie the headlights and it hit my windscreen. We stopped and got out and went up and down that verge and into the field for ages but we never found it. It really upset me at the time.

[quote An0n0n0n]@Poorkitty because pheasants are reared in captivity and released into the wild for shooting.[/quote]
Oh! I didn't know this.. how didn't I know this!?

Awww I feel really bad for pheasants now, no wonder they run around looking so confused all the time

Pigeons are vermin. No tears being shed here.

@entropynow

Pigeons are vermin. No tears being shed here.

agreed