A Little Shaken Up…
Those of you that have ridden a motorcycle and wondered what would happen if an animal darted in front of you and you had no choice but to hit it, don’t have to wonder any more. I found out tonight.
The weird thing is that I kept thinking to watch for armadillos. I’ve seen several lately that had been hit and were still in the road. So I was worried about hitting something like a dead armadillo in the middle of the road. I kept having this eerie feeling about that. I was watching way ahead of me using the car’s headlights in front of me. I was almost home and had already past most of the places that I felt were more likely to have armadillos trying to cross. I had a car in the lane to the left of me. This is a 4 lane main road and everybody is traveling 45-50 or so.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement and as quickly as I noticed that, the animal was running full blast across this road and ran right under the fairing that is behind my front wheel. I felt a bump, bump and the front wheel jerked a little and for a second the bike lost a bit of traction. I automatically slowed down, but didn’t hit the brakes and managed to keep the bike in my lane and upright. This animal was no armadillo though. It was moving way too fast. I think it was a cat, but I’m not totally sure because I only caught a quick glimpse of something brown headed directly for me and there was nothing at all I could do. It happened way too fast. Whatever it was ran off into the woods. I have no idea how badly the animal is hurt. I knew I wasn’t going to find him in those woods while it was dark and a bit foggy outside.Â
I feel bad, though. I know there was nothing I could’ve done to prevent what happened. But I still feel terrible. I’ve never hit an animal before and I’ve always thought that most of the time people could avoid hitting an animal but some just don’t go out of their way to avoid it. There was no way I could have avoided this. He ran between my wheels at the exact moment I was there.
Naturally, I’m a bit shaken up. It was just really odd how I kept having this eerie feeling about hitting an animal. Of course I was thinking it might be an animal already dead on the highway, not a live one trying to run across the highway.Â
I guess I’m probably lucky I didn’t wreck. It would not have been good as I had a car to my left, passing me and 2 more behind me in each lane. I would’ve been run over for sure. It just really sucks if I hurt or killed someone’s pet. :(
Talk to the Cat
Comment by Orb
# February 21, 2006,
I hit a wild rabbit once when driving home from college. Narrow two lane highway, I was in the outside lane of a steeply banked curve sided by a tree-filled gully, oncoming traffic and highway speeds. There was no avoiding it. Couldn’t swerve into the other lane, couldn’t swerve off the road, couldn’t slam on the brakes. I felt so bad I had to pull over and be sick and cry for a while.
When I sat down and started beating myself up over it in the weeks that followed, I came to the conclusion that it was probably good that I didn’t have more time to react … because I would have slammed on my brakes (this was before anti-lock too) or swerved off the road and ended up flying into the ditch at 60 mph. While the rabbit might have survived had I done so, there’s no telling what would have happened to myself or the other humans on the road. So in the end, I decided it was just that rabbit’s time to go, and I was supposed to have that experience.
Not that I really learned anything from it. I have, over the years, put myself and others in danger by avoiding ever hitting another critter on the road … and on some of the roads in my hometown, there are tons of critters to hit. I have never hit another one (yet), but sometimes I wish I didn’t always have enough time to do something stupid, like choose to run off the road at 60 mph.
The thing that proves you are human and wonderful is that it does bother you. I know people who can’t avoid hitting an animal in the road and think nothing of it. I also know people who don’t even bother to try to avoid the animal in the road when they can do so safely (I call them assholes). On a motorcycle, your chances of having a serious accident were very high, so even trying to avoid it might have really turned out badly … so be a little thankful that the universe didn’t give you the option to react. It sucks, but I am a firm believer that things happen for reasons.
If nothing else, take away from this the confidence that you were able to maintain control of your bike. I can’t say I would have been able to … which is why I don’t drive bikes anymore (though I am considering getting one rather than a new car — won’t my mother just love that).
Comment by Catgirl
# February 22, 2006,
It scares me to think what would have happened if I had wrecked. Whatever it was managed to crack the whole side of that fairing, so it hit pretty hard. I remember the handlebars jerking somewhat and if they had turned too far, the bike would have spit me off and probably rolled several times. It would not have been a good situation. I did have on protective gear, but that doesn’t always mean you won’t be killed or wake up in the hospital seriously injured.
I’d like to think the animal survived since he kept on running, but I have no idea. It was almost as if it was trying to make it between the two wheels of the bike when it hit me.
I’ve swerved many times to avoid hitting an animal in the car and thankfully have never hit an animal with the car or caused an accident.
Hubby told me about an incident where he was in his friend’s pick up truck and the bed was full of stuff. A cat did about the same thing and tried to go underneath the car. One of the back tires ran over the cat, but the cat kept going. They pulled over to find the cat and naturally it was freaked out. They saw it go into a flap in someone’s home. So they rang the doorbell to let the people know what happened and that they had accidentally run over the cat. The lady picked the cat up that had come in the house and said he seemed to be okay, except for the tire mark on his fur and that he was panting. She took the cat to the vet to make sure, though. Miraculously he was not injured at all. Hubby and his friend paid her vet bill for the cat, so everything ended well. I’m hoping that this animal was okay as well, and at least I know it’s a possibility.
Comment by red velvet
# February 24, 2006,
glad you are okay, it’s always disturbing for something like that to happen but it’s much better that you are still alive to discuss it