Hitting an animal on the bike - experiences and lessons lear

[davidmc]

Well, it happened. After covering over 18,000 mostly trouble free miles through such challenging places as Pakistan, India and Bangkok, we managed to hit a huge cow in one of the most peaceful, quiet, mellow, traffic-free countries in Asia...Laos. The cow sprinted at Olympic speed from out of nowhere in a semi built-up area and was right in front of us in a split second. I was probably going at least 50kph when I hit it.

I had barely enough time to hit the brakes, but somehow I swerved at the very last second, avoiding hitting the cow head-on. However, I must have hit the rear of the cow, as the bike skidded sideways, and after briefly regaining control of the bike for a second or two, I lost control and we went down hard.

Erika (my passenger) walked away without a scratch, the bike appears to be a bit banged up but ok, but I have broken my collarbone. Fortunately not a complete break, just a crack so hopefully recovery will be swift...I am ready to get back on the bike! But the doctor says a minimum of 2 weeks will be needed before I can ride again. My ego ultimately suffered the most damage.

As with any accident, I am now looking back to figure out what went wrong and how it could have been prevented. Each time I analyze it, I come up with the same conclusion...I happened to be at the wrong place at exactly the wrong time and there was really no way that a collision could have been prevented. I think that the last minute swerve may have prevented more serious injury so I consider myself lucky it wasn't worse.

So the reason I am posting this is not to ask for sympathy, but to ask you to share your own personal experience if you have been unfortunate enough to have collided with an animal on your bike.

What did you learn from the experience? Do you have any tips for others on what you would have done in hindsight? What is the best thing to do if a collision is inevitable? And how small does an animal need to be to actually be able to run it over instead of risk swerving? And are certain bikes more or less safe in a collision with an animal?

I have lots of questions going through my mind right now, but I hope to learn from this experience and I hope others will too.

All input is appreciated!

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

[PanEuropean]

The only question I can answer with any competence is the "how small does an animal have to be before you can run over it rather than swerving" bit.

If the animal is any larger than a can of Coca-Cola (for example, larger than a hedgehog or a squirrel), you have a fairly good risk of dropping the bike when you hit it, unless you have nerves of steel and have the ability to get up on the footpegs and deliberatly hit it, as if it was a rock. Normally, we riders will try to swerve, and if we hit even the smallest animal when making a turn, the front wheel will usually go out from underneath us.

I hit the front end (head) of a 'marder' (martin?) in Switzerland a few years ago. I did not drop the bike, but I felt horrible (for the animal) for quite a while. It was a very scary experience.

Michael

[Jac]

It sends shivers down my spine reading your post as it brought back some pretty awful memories...

In my opinion it is "wrong place at the wrong time" I hope you have a speedy recovery and are back on the road again soon!

On a long straight road in Sumbawa (Indonesia) an old man shooed a rather large goat across the road right in front of me. It happened so quickly I hardly had time to react and all I remember after the impact (I hit the rear end of the goat) is hearing a woman screaming and my legs flying all over the place as I wobbled onto the grass verge and back onto the road again. I was so amazed that I stayed on and I just kept on going after seeing in my mirror that the goat was still upright.

Our intercoms were not working very well at the time, lucky for Trent or he would have heard an earful of screaming!(he was a km or so ahead at the time).

I think it was sheer luck that stopped me from coming off and if I had, I would have come off badly. I was travelling around 70km hour.

Another time in Laos, on the road out to Phonsavan, a dog chased a pig right for my front wheel. It stopped so suddenly at my wheel, but it would have surely taken me out if it had kept going. (And vis versa!).

Cows seem to be able to move at an amazing speed when they want to and I've seen more than one tear across the road. In the Australian outback you need to be wary of cows (not to mention roo's!) especially if they are on the opposite side of the road as their mates as when the spook, they run straight for them.

I'm sure there are many ovelanders out there with similar stories... I'm reading Sam Manicom's book at the moment and in the first chapter he writes about a man who stepped out in front of his bike, and he hit him. That brings back even more bad memories of a time in Pakistan when I hit a woman, but that's another story....

Get well soon.....
Jacqui

[Mombassa]

I guess "wrong place, wrong time". Good you swerved, though. Busted forks and a tweaked frame would have killed the trip. A cow's just too big. Just the thought of needing a new frame and renumbering the carnet etc. Yuk. The general rule is: "If it's bigger than what you can eat in one sitting, don't hit it". That's for touring bikes with shorter suspension, BMW RT, Honda ST1300 etc. If you're on a GS or something with a longer suspension, try to hit whatever is in the way straight on, without braking, just holding the bars lightly, not a death grip. A German shepard folds in half quite nicely and whilst it does get messy, the bike keeps going straight. Sheep are harder, as more of the mass is higher up and the backbone is higher. If the backbone of the animal is below your front axle, you should be relatively ok to hit it. I hit a raccoon (big one) once while leaned over at speed on my RT. It felt like the entire bike shifted 5 inches to the left. After a small heart attack, I stopped for a longish coffee to calm down.

[Bill Ryder]

Just a note, I recently gave a talk on "deer whistles" to our local road riding club. The general info is that things that whistle or emit a sound don't do any good. This is from studies that monitor the results scientificly. The manufactures of the devices claim that they work....Here in montana deer, elk, and cattle outnumber people. Every year somebody on a motorcycle dies from hitting a dear. There are numerous stories of hitting a deer and ripping it in half but most solid hits knock the bike and rider down. The best advice when riding in deer country is to avoid dawn and dusk, this is when they feed and seem to move about most. My own method is to focus my attention ahead of the bike like a high beam of a headlight and mentally warn the animals away. After seeing native americans talk to deer and call them in and disperse them I am willing to use this method.

[Stretcher Monkey]

How's the cow?

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"There's no justice, just us".
1995 Honda VFR 750, Purgatory, London, UK

[JONNY KRAUSE]

I was also wondering what happened to the cow. And to the owner of the cow - even if she was roaming in the street she is sure to have an owner.
I would agree with previous comments that this does sound like 'being at that place at the wrong time', however, as a general rule it is a good idea to treat all animals and people as if they have the intention of running into the road just as you get near. This can make for slow progress through villages and towns, but it can be a lot slower if you hit something, that's for sure.
Sometimes there really is nothing we can do to avoid hitting things, but we should all ride in a way that bears scrutiny if the worst does happen.

[oldbmw]

back in the early 60's I used to commute from norfolk to deepest cornwall when I was in the forces. One night/early morning as I crossed Bodmin moor, it was fairly well lit because it was a full moon with clouds. As a result there were black and white shadows cast on teh ground. Coming down a long winding curve onto a straight bit, I could see these shadows particularly well drifting across the moor, and the road ahead. Seconds later I went through a herd of Freisan cows that were wandering across ( the road was unfenced) How i managed to carve apath through 50+ cattle I will never know. All I could see was cows flashing by. I think because of my speed ( low 80's) the cows did not have time to react. The rest of my ride was slower and I was in avery pensive mood for some hours afterwards.

[davidmc]

The cow disappeared, so I am assuming it was ok. Apparently in Laos, the animal owner is liable for an accident caused by their animal wandering into the road. I was asked by a policeman whether I wanted to sue anyone, to which I replied no. I am glad I didn't direct blame at anyone as the locals took very good care of my bike at their store while I was in the hospital.

Usually I am very careful around animals, I always slow way, way down and assume any animal I pass will jump into the road without warning. The problem this time was that I never saw the cow on the side of the road, it was literally running right in front of me before I realized what was happening. I think it may have run out from behind a building or parked vehicle or something from where my vision was blocked.

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

[This message has been edited by davidmc (edited 13 March 2006).]

[Margus]

Well i think you should be relatively lucky, it could have been much worse! The cow is a very massive animal afterall.

I've experienced accidentially killing huge dog in Greece that wanted to "attack" the the bike's wheels (many dogs don't like the sound and big spinning wheels of bikes, or something, they just want to attack bikes often). The speed was relatively fast - around 90kph i estimated when two dogs (i think they were in "play mood" acctually) run instantly to the road from the left trying to attack the bike, the first one came too quick, too close and with too big angle that my reaction didn't even catch up - all happened with the blink of an eye. Lucky for me - my boxer cylinder guards hit the dog away instantly before it reached my front wheel (it could have been much worse then!). So we were lucky... But the dog was not, he was killed instantly with that cylinder+guard hit of that high speed. The engine guards were completely broken after that, because dog was a big one and some expensive pedigree dog that very probably had a owner somewhere...

As a big dog lover myself, I felt shame, guilt, remorse... But there was nothing i could do about it, it all just happened so fast.

My whole point is - imagine, if it was a over 150kg weighting cow!

[This message has been edited by Margus (edited 13 March 2006).]

[chris]

See http://www.thebrightstuff.com/ch7.htm and scroll down to the "Life is Cheap" bit.

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TheBrightStuffDotCom

[SKILLO]

Hi Dave,

Bugger! Really sorry to hear about your accident, hope you recover well and quickly. Its this sort of thing you worry about on a long bike trip, but you hope it never happens.

I have hit a roo head-on in fog a few years ago. Roo was killed, I was knocked-out, rescued by local passing farmer and spend a day in hospital for observation. Not very nice. Roos are a real problem here in Aus because there is so many and they are so fast and agile, they can and usually do change direction with each hop even doing a 180 turn on the spot at full speed. They can be very hard to know where to swerve. But Emus are worse, they can run at 80kph and don't have any brains at all. They often shoot out from the bush on the side of the road already at full speed. A mate of mine on a bike trip was taken out by one in western Queensland a few years ago, after I only just missed it. Emu with broken leg had to be dispatched, my mate with leg injuries we saved.

NOW HEAR THIS EVERYONE RIDING MOTORCYCLES - I think we all need to review these very important safety messages from Honda:

HOW TO RIDE MOTORCYCLES
1962 Safety Rules from Honda
(Taken from a 1962 Honda Motor Cycle Instruction Book)
1. At the rise of the hand by Policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him by or
otherwise disrespect him.
2. When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet
melodiously at first. If he still obstacles your passage, tootel him with vigor
and express by word of mouth, warning Hi, Hi.
3. Beware of the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass
him. Do not explode the exhaust box at him. Go smoothingly by.
4. Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in roadway. Avoid
entanglement of dog with wheel spokes.
5. Go soothingly on the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon. Press
the brake foot as you roll around the corners, and save the collapse and tie
up.

Dave, I believe you should pay particular attention to the No.3 "wandering Horse" in future.

Margus, I think you actually encountered No.4 the "festive dog" not a dog in "play mood".

Hope this helps us all while riding in future.

John

[This message has been edited by SKILLO (edited 14 March 2006).]

[Red Bull]

I too had a similar bad experience with a dog coming under. Already posted here
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000494.html

Fortunately for me I managed to avoid falling.

PS: I thought these things only happen in India , with cows on the road being so plentiful here.


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Red Bull
Ride safe, ride far, ride often,,,...
http://theroyalenfieldbullet.blogspot.com/
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hari_iyer_s/my_photos

[Bill Ryder]

If you are traveling in the USA especialy the western states some areas are cattle range. If you hit a cow you are responsible for the cow. This is while traveling on paved roads. If anyone is doing the great divide trail along the rocky mountain crest beware the large black cows with calves. If you ride at dusk and come on one of these large healthy range cows that live the summer on their own out in the hills. Then if you scare their calf and get between momma and calf it can get a bit dicey.

[Steve Treloar]

This post brings back many thoughts of hitting animals.After 4 years O/S travelling and not hitting any animals , very close to a couple of Tata's though,it must have ment that I was in the right place at the right time... Though on returnng to Australia you can't prodict the animals at all. Especially Kangaroos and Emu's.As A earlier post mentioned the agility of the Roo's and the stupidity of the Emu's, and there is at least 2 of them together, remember that.My experience with hitting animals, have been 2 X Roos.One came from nowhere to right in front of me , so it was hit at 100kph with no time to brake. the bike was 2 weeks old, some how I managed to tank slap down the road with my left leg on the pillion seat.There was guts all over the bike and I'm sure I hit the roo as it was going out of it's bounce . As its weight tansfer was going away from the bike Bloody lucky. the second was some years later on my old DR500 at night ,in the rain ,on an out back dirt road.I saw its shadow ,locked up the back wheel ,which killed the 6 volt candle.As I got the bike back into a straight line again and the candle started to glow again I hit the Roo's hind and ran over its tail.Again bloody lucky.so 3 thoughts, speed, conditions, straight lines
steve
PS. sorry to the poms for using the Bloody word....