Last night, on a 40mph, within speed limit. Dark road, bushes either side, no other cars. This black and white cat scoots out from a bush across road then freezes in my headlights and stops still with a definite wallace and gromit anxiety expression, as well it might given what then happened. It was lined up with my right tyre as it was just over the white line. I was braking but it appeared with only about 20m to play with so I was still travelling as neared it. I turned the wheel to put a wheel either side of it in the hope that it would go under, which it did, but there was then a sickening couple of bumps as it was struck by the underside of the car. Presumably the exhaust system (perhaps, ironically, my cat). I drove into a drive, turned the car and went back out the other way and looked but I couldn't see it. I then parked, got a torch and walked down 100 yards either side to check the bushes. No sign of anything whatsoever.
Ghost cat.
I hope it returned home with a plan to cross roads more wisely. I sincerely hope it was not as injured as I suspect it in fact was and that some lovely family has not lost their dear animal. So awful. I knocked on a couple of doors but nobody had a black and white cat or knew whose it was.
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Today is national cat day, muttley.
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:-|
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If he was directly underneath the car, I reckon you're ok. Those critters can make themselves very flat when they want to.
Hopefully he's still got another 8 lives left.
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so..... I once ran a man over in North London at 25mph. I ran to the back of the car to help him and he wasn't there (I saw him go up over my roof). then the witness behind me said "nah mate, he's about 30 feet in front of your car"....
He was ok. Car was mangled though.
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The 9 lives thing is no joke. It'll have sauntered off unscathed.
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How TF did he get 30 ft in front of your motor if you were pootling along at 25mph?
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Heh
I was thinking that too dux.
Physics much?
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I didn't look into the science of it Dux. I was in shock (plus, I'm sure no one actually measured the distance).
What I did learn was, his shoes came off and we could only find one of them.. so now I know when you see a single shoe at the side of the road, that's where they came from.
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There was certainly a double clunk enough to feel it through the floor so I doubt it got up and sauntered off. But I could not find it anywhere so off it did fu ck. But my worry is that it will have turned up at home minus some bits and a family will have been thrown into turmoil. Poor thing.
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says eddie2shoes.
Is that where you get 'em, eddie?
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He gets all his footwear from RTA victims? Well now we know.
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heh
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heh, gotta run a lot of people over to get a pair in my size
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Have you checked under your car?
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heh, I was thinking that... might still be there.
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A previous Sailcat had a kink in her back just in front of her tail from where something similar happened to her. She made it home covered in oil with a broken back and despite the vet's fears regained full use of her tail and lived for many more years.
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Squirrels have this habit of freezing half way across the road, ffs, how there are so many of them still is beyond me.
Yesterday I very nearly saw a boy on a bike being mown down by an ambulance. The boy shot onto the road (3 lanes at a roundabout) to cross it just after the lights had changed, but the ambulance had just slowed rather than stopping at the lights (under blue lights). Slammed on the breaks. Fortunately the rest of us drivers in other lanes were waiting for the ambie to go first anyway so we didnt move when the lights changed.
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wondering if the person in the ambulance survived...
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Well, quite. Anyway it was a reminder of how professionally driven ambulances are.
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Fīat iūstitia ruat cælum
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You're not after his shoes too? FFS Eddie.
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Eddie 201 shoes
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Yes you need to check under your car, that poor poor cat. I feel for you too. I know how awful it is to hit an animal especially if you are an animal lover. Years back I travelling down the coastal rd near me. Pitch black, about 7pm, going about 40ish. 2 dogs jumped straight out in front of my car from the sand dunes at the passenger side of the road. I literally had no time to brake so I did the most natural thing that came to me (but very stupid) and swerved my car so ended up in the other lane facing the traffic oncoming towards me. Luckily the cars behind me in the correct lane stopped and the cars oncoming did too and I was just concerned about the dogs. I got out of my car and a lady immediately grabbed me and walked me in one direction and said don't look back. I was really upset and so looked around and I saw the dog move. Luckily I had the emergency vets number in my phone so rang them and they said bring the dog straight over. I'd hit a yellow lab but missed a black one (or it missed me) and someone caught it. Anywayyyyyy a v nice man with a 4x4 said he'd take the dog to the vet. I was devastated and so called the police and went further up the rd by the beach to wait for them (they were incredibly nice). I got home distraught and rang the vet. The vet said when he got the dog on the table it wagged its tail. He'd got in touch with the owners who said they'd lost both dogs about 2pm when they'd gone chasing rabbits on the dunes. They looked for hours but the dogs didn't come back so they went home ?!? I wouldn't have done that but..anyway it was my vet so I kept in touch and the dog made a full recovery. Could not have been happier (although could have done without the stress). I just thank god for that emergency vets number in my phone because the dog would have been at the vets no more than 5 mins after it happened. That was always my worst fear too driving down the coastal rd. Always thought, what if something jumped out - you'd have no chance of stopping as the dunes are quite high so you wouldn't really see a dog in your eyeline and especially at night. And then it happened. Still wary of that rd and don't use it at night now. :(
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I hit an owl last year. Sort of rolled off the windscreen and flew away. Hard as fook.
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Just after I had started driving age 17 I hit a chap who after getting off a bus was walking across the road in front of it. It had pulled into the bus lay-by and he just appeared suddenly in front of me as I was driving past the stationery bus.
I wasn’t going that fast, and stopped straightaway and got out and went over to him. Luckily it was just a glancing blow, but as I and the bus driver tried to get him to sit down and we would assess any damage, he got up and started running away. Poor fella was obviously in a state of shock. I tried to follow him but he just kept running.
Drove into town and went straight to the police station to report it and ask if anyone had recently called for an ambulance in the area.
Whenever I drive past a bus now I make a habit of slowing down, covering the brakes, just in case. There but the grace of god…
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we need a cull of cats so don’t worry too much
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Stalking birds in the undergrowth has its dangers...
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Heh @ Eddie, the Imelda Marcos of ROF.
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to be fair, the highway code says exactly that, and has done for many years. Rule 182 as it used to be.
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I can still remember (about 35 years on) the hellish yelp from a retriever puppy my dad hit as it ran out of some park gates right in front of him. The noise was awful. Luckily my dad had a Supra (remember those?) at the time with a ridiculously low spoiler at the front so I think he pushed the pup along the road so it didn't go under the car. Anyway, it raced off away from the park so I hope it was ok. But the yelp is still ringing in my ears.
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The mistake you made was braking. If anything you should have accelerated.
If it was a dog, the opposite would obviously apply.
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Marshall you can just swerve into a stationery bus without doing yourself any damage.
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Sails, I’d only been driving for about 3 months so advanced driving manoeuvres were several years away.
It was my dad’s motor. I have no idea why he trusted me in it…
Anyhow, I genuinely didn’t have time to do anything other than slam the brakes on.
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A stationary bus would be a whole different matter as they aren’t made of paper.
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Is it still alive ffs
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