Over the last two years almost 4000 animals were hit and killed by vehicles on major routes in Britain, and although this may seem like a large number, these are just the reported ones. Te estimated numbers are nearer 165,000 a staggering figure.
In fact, 39% of motorists have acknowledged to hitting an animal at some point throughout their life driving, and only 14% reported it, although there are particular animals which you need to report hitting by law. These are dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys and mules, as set out in the Road Traffic Act of 1988. What is interesting is that 59% of those who had hit an animal and not reported it, said this was because they knew that only certain animals need to be reported.
Facts and Figures
The figure of 4000 only includes animals that have been killed on the road in accidents which were reported, which is why there are only four rabbits and four pheasants in the data although these are two types of animal that you would expect to have been hit most often. Interestingly enough the report said that a wallaby had died! The list of killed animals also included a heron, peacock and a goat.
The most commonly hit and reported animal is a deer, with 1117 being killed over the two year period, making up 29% of all reported animal accidents. Badgers were the second most hit at 23%, which equates to 915 reported accidents, and foxes are in third place with 716 being killed and reported.
Avoiding Animals
Despite being warned that they should not change their driving if they spot an animal in the road, 49% of motorists had tried to avoid hitting an animal with 43% of them saying they had tried braking heavily and 40% admitting that they had swerved to avoid one. When learning to drive, learners are told never to swerve or brake suddenly, in avoiding an animal running across the road, to protect the safety of other motorists.
On the other end of this scale, 11% said that the reason they did not try to avoid animals in the road through heavy braking or swerving was to protect other drivers (33%). 22% said to prevent hurting themselves plus any motorist who hit another vehicle due to trying to dodge an animal would be entirely liable for the collision.
However, some drivers would change their driving behaviour for certain animals but not others, with 80% saying that they would swerve to avoid a dog. On the other hand, only 47% said the same about a bird, which could link to the fact that hitting a dog needs to be reported whereas hitting a bird does not.
Most Dangerous Road
A different report released found that the most dangerous road for animals was the A303 from Basingstoke to Devon, via Stonehenge. This road runs through some beautiful countryside, which means more animals are liable to run across. In Canada, they have a system that along bigger roads that have a high proportion of animal deaths, they put large barriers to stop animals from running into the road.
In the same report, 18% of Britons said that they would eat roadkill, and some even said they had eaten roadkill! Looking further at the results at what animals people would eat, 10% would be happy to eat a swan and 14% willing to eat a squirrel!
Staying Safe
It is important to remember that staying safe on the roads and protecting yourself and other motorists may mean that hitting an animal is unavoidable at times. If you, unfortunately, do kill an animal, and you can recognise it as one on the list, then do make a note of the area, road name and time of day and get in touch with your local authority as soon as possible.
For more information on reporting animals, please visit the Government website.
Do you swerve around animals when driving? Would you eat roadkill? Let us know in the comments
I always try to avoid hitting something in the road by braking or swerving if it is safe to do so, usually it is pheasants or squirrels I come across. I would not consider eating road kill, but my father was a keen fly fisherman, and he would stop to cut feathers from a dead pheasant to use in tying his own flies.
Tsk tsk. Shoulda used a zip
I regrettably killed a baby deer about 3 years ago (and reported it). With regard to eating it I was subsequently told that it is indeed illegal to eat a deer if you are responsible for its death. I had to drag the poor thing (still twitching) to the side of the road where it died (presumably from shock as I only gave it a glancing blow). Does anyone know about the legality of these situations?
If you hit an animal or bird, then it is illegal to stuff it into your boot (if it will fit) and take it home. If it is already dead when you find it, then you can take it home.
Whoever wrote a law saying you should not brake when a sodding great deer trots in front of your car has clearly never been in this situation. I still hit it, but it walked off unharmed.
Tim, it says ‘should not’ not ‘must not’ advice not requirement
I’ve twice run into a deer, once in Germany (with no apparent harm done to anything except my nerves), and once where Newbury, where the deer bounded across, set off my pedestrian collision system, and departed unto the undergrowth. It turned out not to be just a matter of resetting the system, but (among other things) a new bonnet. The insurance company accepted that it wasn’t my fault, but said they would have difficulty in claiming from the deer’s insurance. So it was my claim discount that took a hit, not the beast who caused the accident. It was an expensive incident.
I can sympathise. The best part of two years ago I hit a badger as I was exiting the M60 at Cheadle. It’s a very long slip road and I was still travelling at some speed. I didn’t have even a second to brake as the animal ran across the road out of undergrowth. The badger took the full force of a head-on impact. I assume (I hope) it died more or less instantly. The damage to my Volvo C30 was in the region of £1,000. This was when I learnt that ‘no fault’ is not ‘no claim’. Apparently the badger was not insured and it’s estate did not cover the costs! Even with no claim protection my renewal quotes pretty well doubled and I unfortunately ended up reinsuring with an unpleasant company called BeWiser. I am now wiser and will not be renewing with them again.
I would try to take avoiding action purely from the viewpoint that hitting pretty much anything is going to cause damage. As long as it isn’t putting me into conflict with other road users, then slowing or swerving isn’t necessarily as dangerous as hitting something. Every situation would be different.
It could also be argued that a following vehicle should not be so close that they run into you if you need to stop quickly.
Birds I gather are not notifiable animals. Does this include swans? Or are they in a special category? I understand they are in some respects.
“Swerve” is a vague word, and also it depends on circumstances. If the road’s otherwise clear, I might swerve and brake quite a bit, otherwise only slightly or not at all.
There have been people killed when they have hit a deer (usually a stag) so if you don’t mind I will continue to try and avoid them
The animals covered under the law as described in the article are there because of their value to the agricultural industry either in the past or currently.
The logic in the article is funny. As it claims, drivers try to avoid a dog but run over a bird because they have to report the dog’s killed. I’d have thought that avoiding larger animals makes more sense. Mind you some dogs are as small as squirells while swans can cause a bit of a risky situation. But generally, I’d try avoiding hitting a larger animal. I don’t ecare what the law says about reporting roadkill. It’s what makes sense. If I hit a horse, I know that horse belongs to someone. Also, the horse may still be alive and has to be either healed of put down humanely. Also it’s body would be a cause for other accidents and decomposing at the side of the road – a long smelly process. Hence, report at once from the spot of the accident. And also, at the next village if close by. As I said, irrespective of the law.
Hit an owl with a rabbit in it’s clutches, two in one. Flew across the road straight into my windscreen, nothing I could do to avoid.
I hit a pigeon.
Feathers kept appearing from the front of the car for the rest of the journey!
We must all drive to AVOID hitting ANY animal or creature. Its wicked not to – and that includes especially Cats and Birds. Drive so you can see well ahead
and take safe avoiding action
In twilight conditions in early 2016 a deer ran out of the undergrowth and straight across the front of my car. Before I had a chance to react it was followed by a second deer which (regrettably) I hit. Fortunately I wasn’t going fast and it staggered a little before disappearing off into the woods. Still left me with £800 of damage to the front of the car though.
Given the excess of £500 I just reported it to my insurers,Liverpool Victoria (LV) for information only and made it clear that I didn’t want to submit a claim. Since then, I’ve been obliged to record the ‘accident’ on every new insurance quotation over the last two years which has undoubtedly affected my premium, but more irritating still is that even to this day I keep getting phone calls from ‘accident chasers’ who were somehow made aware of my accident (despite no claim being made) and asking if I want to make any whiplash claims. I now just terminate the call and put a block on their number, but it still results in further calls from different numbers. I just don’t know how to get rid of these parasites once and for all.
LV have told me that they didn’t pass on my details to any third party but were obliged to record it on the ‘accident database’. The whole process is flawed to the extent now that if a similar event occurred I don’t think I’d report it to my insurer at all. Being honest and transparent was my downfall.