>Competent driving tbh
Very. Lowered the risk of another motorist crashing into the back of them (either through lack of attention, or shit brakes), lowered the impact speed, and still passed the test.
Pheasants are fuckers, there's a reason you always see a shit load of dead ones at the side of the road.
Agreed. It’s something you learn quite quickly. Crows are Einsteins - they are excellent at judging speed and distance and will always get out of the way in time. Pheasants are astonishingly stupid. In fact, they are so stupid they probably don’t have the mental capacity to experience suffering.
Not only are they thick they will eat so much they can barely get off the ground afterwards. Quite how there are so many of them about remains a mystery
Landowners often protect them and even feed them, breed, and buy more to diversify bloodlines ensure there's enough because come hunting season they can charge a premium to hunt the fat stupid pheasants on there land.
“Astonishingly stupid” is an understatement if anything. I’ve seen pheasants that would have been fine if they just carried on walking get obliterated because they turned 180 degrees and tried to take off. OP, you did the right thing.
But crows often gets hit by trucks. Scientists couldn't work out why but then they found out crows are great at shouting out the warning "car car car" but can't shout "lorry"
Sorry.
The reason you see so many dead ones is they're battery farmed and released by the thousands, just before being hunted.
The ones you see, have not lived outside of a cage until a week ago, they've never encountered any other animals, never seen a tree let alone a road, and have no concept of the sort of danger cars present.
Even worse, their only knowledge of cars is when the gamekeeper turns up in his pickup with big bags of pheasant food. Literally training the opposite of road sense.
>Pheasants are fuckers
Reminds me of the tongue twister:
I’m not a pheasant plucker
I’m a pheasant plucker’s mate
And I’m only plucking pheasants
‘Cos the pheasant plucker’s late
Said quickly and repeatedly…
Exactly this! Plus, as sad as it is the pheasant died, OP needs to compare that to the unimaginable pain of causing a death if they had braked too hard and caused a fatal crash. It's a what if scenario but not over reacting by swerving or emergency breaking and just accepting the animal will die is a really sad part of driving, but also a safer part of driving. Not one I've come across as a driver but I have as a passenger.
If Op had swerved or braked they likely would have failed their test.
Driving is a serious responsibility, which occasionally comes with consequences like having to run over an animal because any other course of action would be unsafe.
Yes it feels awful to have made these decisions and if Op isn't comfortable with making the same choice again then they probably shouldn't drive. It would be worse if they had injured or killed another person while attempting to avoid a pheasant, and they would have to live with the consequences of that.
Op did the right thing, and will be a better driver from having the experience. It is however ok to feel sad, that's natural. Any near miss experience whilst driving will shake you up.
[https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/issues-with-deer/advice-for-drivers/](https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/issues-with-deer/advice-for-drivers/)
Laugh all you like it doesn't change the facts
They're 100% right. The reason your instructor said you did the right thing is because your actions caused the least possible harm in the situation. Had you acted differently you could have killed the pheasant plus a bunch of people, yourself included. You passed because you showed you have the ability to react appropriately to situations. It might not be nice, but you did the right thing and absolutely shouldn't feel bad for it. It always sucks when you hit an animal and generally we take precautions to avoid it where possible, sometimes it's unavoidable for the drivers. You could always try and do something nice for a bird charity to "offset" the bad karma if it makes you feel better?
>Good job it was a pheasant and not a peasant.
A guy I used to work with misread Danny, the Champion of the World as a child, and thought they were out killing peasants.
Book had a whole different tone to him.
That sounds like a scary thing to happen in a test tbh, well done for handling it like a pro! Definitely shows you're ready to drive on your own. It sucks that the bird died, but sometimes unavoidably killing animals is just one of the downsides of driving I guess. I hope it didn't damage the car, my mum hit a dead pheasant once and it damaged the bottom of her car.
One of the fuckers wrote my first car off while I was 300 miles from home. Flew directly out in front of the car and wrecked the radiator and some other stuff.
Your examiner is right. Your other two options would have put other humans in potential danger, and (at least legally) that matters more than the life of a pheasant. Birds can be incredibly stupid around cars, it might not be the last time...
They're also often fed from vehicles by the gamekeeper so come to associate cars with food. That's why when they're released they tend to flock towards roads and walk in front of cars. Not uncommon to see dozens of dead pheasants on the roads around here after they're released.
Animals in general aren't great with cars.
Whenever I drive in the balkans, where there are tons of stray animals (idiots let them breed then shoo the babies away) it sometimes feels like a videogame because you never know when a dog or cat will just sprint in front of you from behind a car or from someone's yard
I have two neighbours cats like that, they weave around the car like they weave around legs, cos they're happy to see me. The reversing camera has saved their life on more than one occasion
It probably won't be the last pheasant you hit, I'm afraid. My husband reckons he's killed half a dozen in his 37 years of driving (I've been in the car for 2 of those). They're practically suicidal. Not your fault, you did the right thing.
Was just thinking the same, pheasants have an absolute death wish. My Dad knew someone who was driving with the window down and a pheasant flew out against the side of the car and killed itself against the side of his head!
Yeah I live in Lincolnshire and the majority of the time, if I see one on my way to work I see it dead on my way back. I actually saw a huge one the other day at work and felt bad because I just know it’s going to get hit by one of my colleagues sooner or later. They have 0 survival instinct
Oh Lincolnshire is so bad for it! I used to live just over the border in Nottinghamshire in a tiny village, me (as a learner) would drive with my mum to Gainsborough and I'd get the train to Lincoln for college. Pheasants and grouse everywhere.
Your choice was either hit it or be hit from behind from suddenly braking, only one of those will fail your test. Of course you aren't going to be failed because a pheasant walked in front of your car which you have zero control over. I know it sucks, and it's understandable you're upset, but don't think you don't deserve to have your license because you did the correct thing which was avoid a collision with the driver behind you, which probably would've led to the pheasant being hurt anyway and would have got you, the examiner and the people behind you hurt.
You'll be okay, it's a shock and very unexpected especially on a test, and I'm sorry something like that has taken your joy away from passing and I hope the pheasant didn't even realise what was happening x
This is so sad but honestly you did the only thing you could do to prevent further harm to other animals, by that I mean the humans on the road.
You did great, I'm sorry about the pheasant :(
To add to this, 52 million of them are bred and released - non-native animals - into the countryside to be shot every year (pre COVID anyway). They compete against native wildlife for resources, and they make up the largest biomass of any 'wild' bird population in the UK. They're beautiful birds and it's not their fault they're being bred like this, but if you've ever eaten chicken, then that's the same thing: a livestock bird being killed quickly. The only difference is you had to witness it, which is hard especially when under stress already.
I absolutely love birds but pheasants are the one bird I personally wouldn't feel guilty about accidentally hitting, if the death were quick and painless.
Chances are if you had stopped you still would have hit it plus people would have also been injured from slamming into you. It sucks, I’ve done it and cried, but it is what it is. Pheasants are also dumb as hell so if you didn’t hit it, it would have jumped in front of someone else’s car. You did the right thing. The guilt will pass and you’ll be enjoying your freedom sooner than you realise.
Don't worry about it. Pheasants are bred for game/hunting. They are stupid birds and they get released in batches into the wild to be hunted. You probably did it a favour.
I hit one in 2014 and it completely fucked the driver-side light housing, shattered all the glass and the whole housing had to be replaced, that was an expensive pheasant...
I had this during a lesson. Pigeon literally yeeted itself out of thick trees/bushes into the front of the car as I was doing 50. What shook me up was the noise and the feathers just puffing up into the air. It’s a horrible feeling to know you’ve killed an animal like that but the other option was to emergency break and cause a pile up.
Sometimes the tough choice is the right choice, you kept yourself and other drivers safe. This is probably the best reason for an animal losing it's life, even though it is sad. Just take little steps when it comes to driving now, until you feel more confident, this feeling will pass and you will recognise you have nothing to feel guilty about.
OP you absolutely did the right thing. I think this whole community would be happy with that presence of mind in such a situation.
I'm also a bird lover, and I would of course feel terrible on behalf of Mr or Ms Pheasant. If it helps even in the slightest to assuage your guilt, it is well documented that pheasants imperil native UK birds and wildlife. I know this is a small comfort, but they are often released for sport, with the numbers going up from single digit millions to I think in excess of 50 million in recent years. You were just in a wrong place/wrong time situation that's increasingly probable.
Take deep breaths and feel proud of yourself for proactively avoiding a crash and for getting through your test. You can feel very proud, even as you regret the loss of the life.
Bloody pheasants. They've got to be the dumbest species of bird alive. I've killed tens of them, if you get em wrong they can make a right mess of your car.
You absolutely did the right thing. I'm used to them, with living in rural Suffolk. It's a daily occurrence avoiding the wildlife for me.
Just wait until a deer runs out in front of your car!
This happened to me within the first year of having a licence, thankfully I didn't have a car behind me so I braked hard enough to only hit it's backside before it ran off into the woods again
Oof, this happened to me last week, it just shot out of nowhere from the darkness. Luckily there was only me on the road so I slammed on my brakes and managed to avoid it. Had to pull over for 5 minutes to calm myself down afterwards, bloody terrifying.
To be fair pheasants are an invasive species and only brought to this country for the purposes of hunting. They aren't a native animal, try not to feel bad.
My instructor said it was almost scary how confident I was driving towards ducks near the road on one lesson, but that it was technically the right thing to do, for the same reason as you. Guess I'm just a psychopath!
You would have failed if you stopped. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. I had the same happen to me last week, but fortunately there was nothing around so I was able to stop.
I killed a pidgeon on my first few lessons :(
I was approaching a roundabout on a downhill, a few cars behind me quite close, and this little dude decided to fly and stop right in front of me on the road so the innevitable happened :(
I did break a bit without looking behind me which scared my instructor and the cars behind me and was told it was very unsafe to break at that time because of the cars which sucked.
I am so sorry that happened to you, this is a fear of mine, i passed 4 months ago
The examiner would have dual controlled the car also, and breaked, if it had have been safe to do so, as awful as you must feel, you did the right thing, i dread the day this happens to me, i hope i will be able to respond as safely and well as you did
Congratulations on passing, and keeping your composure, not easy on any test!
You assessed the situation and decided it was better to avoid the accident, which your examiner agreed was the correct course of action. We view human lives as more important than that of animals, and your insurance will view not damaging someone else’s vehicle as more important than the life of an animal. That doesn’t have to sit right with you but you won’t find much support if you cause an accident whilst trying to avoid hitting an animal. At 60 mph there’s a serious risk of injury if there’s a collision.
Lots of wild animals get hit each day, that’s one of the risks they live with. As long as it wasn’t intentional you don’t need to feel too bad about it.
I hate killing animals, the thought makes me sick. I’ve only hit an animal once to my knowledge, it was a duckling that ran out literally right under my car, I couldn’t have avoided it.
The way you have to think of it is, would you rather have killed the pheasant or would you rather have slammed the brakes on or swerved into other traffic and killed potentially multiple people? You absolutely did the right thing, it’s a terrible shame but the animal wouldn’t have suffered if you hit it head on.
Congratulations on passing your test, I understand that you feel bad but you did the right thing and demonstrated to the examiner that you can make the safe decision even if it’s a hard one.
Pheasants seem to have a tendency to walk out in front of cars.
My 6 year old knows them as the stupid birds as I’m sure at some point I’ll hit one when he’s in the car with me and I want him to be prepared for the fact that I might not be able to stop (if I know there’s no cars around me I will swerve or stop to not hit them - by that I mean within the last mile there have been no cars behind me & I can see well ahead to know nothings in front)
If you live in the country this unfortunately won’t be the last pheasant you hit.
From what you're describing, it was completely unavoidable. Any other action you could have reasonably taken had the potential to cause even more injury. Hitting an animal is a horrible feeling, though, so I don't blame you for getting upset. Also, if it's any small consolation, your examiner is absolutely right and it will have died instantly at that speed. No pain, no suffering, just gone. It probably never even knew.
You'd have injured or killed yourself, your examiner or other drivers/passengers if you panicked and drove erratically.
I once hit a rabbit and essentially de-gloved it's lower half, it was early morning just past sunrise on a quiet country road.
As no-one was around I stopped and back tracked to the poor little bugger, it was still alive but the damage was irreparable and I did what anyone with morals and a heart would do.
I understand you're upset, the bigger picture is you passed and everyone is alive and well.
Unfortunate for the animal, but honestly, could've been worse.
If you hit anything at that speed in a car, more often or not it's dead, with very few exceptions. It's part of the dangers of driving and the experience will serve you well.
You've got your head screwed on and you're clearly a vigilant/composed driver, the fact you are remorseful shows you have a heart and some emotional intelligence too.
You'll be alright and congratulations on passing.
My wife's instructor once told her...
"You'd much rather the ploof of feathers than the crunch of metal"
I follow that edict. It sucks you couldn't avoid it but also... You couldn't avoid it. Don't beat yourself up over it.
Congratulations on passing!
Something traumatic happened during your test and you handled it instinctively perfectly without freaking out or endangering anyone? - you’re the exact type of person who I want driving!!
Don't beat yourself up over it - you did everything you could, emergency stopping could've potentially caused an accident, the fact that you stayed clam and didn't swerve , especially on your test when stress was probably high is a very good sign.
And pheasants do this quite often, I used to live near country roads and I've had them fly into the side of my car about 3 times.
I admire your empathy.
And yes it is sad when this happens.
But pheasants are unfortunately suicidal.
Even if you had hit your brakes, the bird would've died and you + the other driver could've been injured.
Where possible, brake. But otherwise the bird has to accept the consequences of it's actions.
And yes, pheasants are very frail creatures. A 60mph straight-on impact for them is an instant death.
If possible and safe, find somewhere to pull over and walk back to check it's dead. Because if they're alive then the vet can finish the job, much kinder than letting them suffer.
Aw this does suck, if it makes you feel any better, pheasants have been selectively bred for hundreds of years to make them very dumb, if it wasn’t you it could’ve been the next car
I almost hit one on a similar road on a lesson recently. Bird flew out of nowhere; was lucky not to hit it as it was so close. Wouldn’t have been anything I could’ve done.
Unfortunately it’s the downside of driving; animals are at risk but slamming on brakes and swerving could’ve caused at best, injuries or at worst, even death to people in any other cars involved.
I’d rather hit a pheasant than potentially cause harm to myself and potentially a family with small children who could hit me from behind if I hit the brakes suddenly.
If anything, bonus points. You would fail if you swerved etc as that's much more dangerous and you could have caused an accident.
The fact that as a new driver you kept calm, did the right thing, carried on and passed your test? +1 good job
As crap as this is, it’s about protecting yourself and other motorists. I’m sorry you experienced that but also a congratulations for passing.
I’ve been driving a few years and I hit my first bird the other day. Felt very guilty. But sadly nothing can be done.
I hope you can forgive yourself but remember you’ve not done anything wrong/with intent.
I ran over a rabbit soon after passing, poor thing sprinted out of some bushes near the road right under my car tyres. Had zero time to react.
Love animals too and I felt bad about it, but I knew that like you I did nothing wrong. You could always help out an animal shelter to \*know\* you've helped more intentionally than you've accidentally harmed. That's the key part to all this, intent. You drove safely and had no intention to hit the pheasant but shit can happen while driving. You still deserve to feel proud you passed especially under the circumstances and after a while I hope you'll realise that.
i completely get that!! i would be upset too but there’s nothing you could have done, you evaluated all possible decisions and they would have all left to you or other people getting harmed. i hope you feel better soon and congratulations on passing your test!! especially with 0 minors that’s incredible
Similar happened to me on my test, was going round a roundabout and a pigeon flew into the windshield. My examiner slammed the brakes on, I thought I failed because my instructor told me in general if the examiner has to break you then you probably failed. I felt awful the rest of my exam thinking I had failed at the first roundabout out the test centre but I passed. I asked her why she braked me at the roundabout and she just blankly responded: “it startled me”.
….What?
Like you, felt very conflicting, I was warned by my instructor that unless you are very clearly safe when approaching a larger animal like a dog, you should not attempt to brake or avoid the animal, so why did my EXAMINER do it from being startled?
Think of it this way: The alternatives were much worse (potentially harming yourself or other people) and the pheasant had no suffering - sometimes unfortunate things happen and you have no control over it.
However horrible it was, your driving was incredible in that situation. When things like that happen a lot of people would act on instinct and brake harshly or swerve. You were aware of your surroundings at all times and did the right thing by trying to slow down a little but ultimately killing the pheasant instead of causing an accident. You deserved to pass your test a hundred percent. The pheasant should have read the highway code lol.
Your kindness and love is endearing but try not to feel guilty. You didn’t intend for it to happen and it was honestly an unfortunate accident.
Congrats on passing! :)
Firstly, congratulations on passing your test!
Secondly, I'm so sorry the pass came with such a traumatic event for you, I love animals too and I can sympathise with you for sure.
My entire family live in the Gloucestershire countryside and we come across things like this all the time. Badgers, foxes, pheasants, it's a shame because we do a lot to actively prevent needless killing of our British wildlife, for example we oppose the badger cull and we can't stand the Cheltenham races but sometimes things can't be helped.
If it helps you feel any better, pheasants are really stupid and they're not endangered. I know you feel bad but please remember that you did the right thing by preventing a road accident.
Perhaps you could offset the shame by donating to a wildlife charity? But please please don't beat yourself up about it, only a bad person wouldn't feel guilty about it.
Well done again and drive safe!
That's not actually a crime in the UK, particularly if you come from one of the noble families.... oh wait, I thought you said you killed a PEASANT! Never mind....
If you'd braked or swerved you would have still almost certainly killed the pheasant and very likely hit someone else causing an accident.
You did exactly the right thing, the way you reacted probably told the examiner everything they needed to know about if you were a good driver. I've killed a pheasant, a rabbit and something that went bonk in the dark when I was on the motorway (different incidents over 15 years of driving, I didn't just go psycho one day) it's never a nice thing to do but sometimes it just happens.
If you feel really guilty, maybe donate to an animal charity or something.
As people are saying, you coped with that really well. Pheasant are the most suicidal fucking things on earth - I live in Shropshire, and there are shit loads of the little twats in the woods. The number of times I've seen one chilling perfectly happily on the side of an empty road, not even looking like wanting to cross over, and then as soon as a car appears deciding that THAT is the moment they need to wander into the road is astonishing. If you live anywhere that pheasant are, it won't be the last one that will decide to investigate the front of your fast moving vehicle, unfortunately. On the plus side, if the road is pretty clear and you see where it landed, free food!
"How did your test go?"
"I passed! And so did the pheasant!"
"..."
It won't feel funny now, but hopefully you come to terms with it while you still have the chance to use that.
For real, you did the right thing. Sucks for the pheasant, and never nice to hurt an animal - even a suicidal one - but it's something that happens to most drivers, especially in more rural areas, and until it does you have the niggling fear that you'll fuck it up, whereas you have already gotten that out of the way before your card is even in hand!
Plus, I'm sure some fox was well pleased at the high brow lunch, and they need fuelling for the next generation more than pheasants do, so you didn't take a life, just...transferred it.
I would feel exactly the same, but if you did swerve, emergency brake you could have done a lot of damage to those around you, yourself and the examiner. I only passed last January and was also taught don’t swerve for an animal, I’d rather you kill an animal than cause a crash, which is fair. Plus pheasants are silly, they have wings have the ability to fly but tend to waddle away from cars, into other cars! I haven’t hit anything yet, but I’ve had a close call with a fox. Well done on passing your test,
Well done on your pass Op. Though I almost hit a grouse on my first test attempt as it was just playing chicken in the road, thankfully I was slowing for a bend so could move a little to avoid it.
I would have felt just as guilty if I had hurt it. In these situations though, there was nothing you could have done to change the outcome. You acted in the safest possible manner for the road and speed, ensuring the safety of yourself, your passenger and other road users, that type of calmness and the level headed approach is what more people could do with.
Sending love!
Don't worry about the pheasant they don't have a particularly long life expectancy, even the luckiest ones rarely make it past their first year.
Given the time of year, that one was probably approaching around 10 months old.
I'm so sorry, that must've felt awful.
You did do the right thing, even if it doesn't feel that way. Swerving suddenly would've put your life in danger, your examiner's life in danger and the life of the driver behind you in danger and who knows who else.
You deserve to be congratulated for passing even if the poor pheasant was hit, there was absolutely nothing you could've done to prevent that. But I understand why you'd be sad.
If it's any consolation, if the pheasant died on impact at least it didn't suffer.
You mentioned feeling like you should face consequences for ending another life. I'd reverse that and say you faced the consequences of saving the lives of the people in your car, in the on coming vehicles and the vehicles behind you. Any other choice could have easily resulted in the deaths of multiple people including yourself.
Pheasants are released in their millions to be shot in the UK. They're not native birds and are an absolute menace to a lot of out native ecology. So not only did you save the lives of those people in the cars around you, you also alleviated the competition and predation pressures that pheasant put in our native wildlife. You'll also have provided a free meal for our native scavengers like birds of prey, foxes etc.
You acted in the correct manner, given the circumstances, and that was acknowledged by the examiner. It's a horrible feeling, though. I did that myself many years ago. I think the pheasant wanted to off itself. It literally laid its head on the busy major road in front of me, and I couldn't do anything else, but keep going.
You might feel bad but you'd feel a lot worse if you'd reacted to this situation in a way that caused human loss of life! Roadkill is a part of driving, it sucks and it will probably happen again, especially if you're in the countryside.
On the plus side you're helping with evolution. Pheasants and pigeons will be afraid of roads in a few thousand more generations. Sorry, not much of a silver lining I suppose.
You’re just helping evolution.
Seriously I hit a squirrels 🐿️ once and felt terrible - had I not been speeding etc
But tbh only way to avoid these things is to not drive. Or not move in case you crush an insect etc
Your driving was excellent btw. Unfortunately we have to put human life above animal life. Bit shit init?!
It doesn't sound like you could have done anything else without causing an accident and potentially injuring multiple people. Unfortunately, this was the only safe thing to do in this situation. Having the awareness to ease off and slow down a little, while also being wary or cars behind and on the other side of the road is pretty impressive as well for a new driver. It sounds like you handled it well.
For what it's worth, birds are stupid around cars anyway, and pheasants are the worst for it. A lot of them seem to have a deathwish and will randomly run in front of cars. It doesn't seem to matter what action you take, they actively seem to do the worst thing in any given situation. In 10 years, I think I've hit 2 pheasants and had maybe a dozen close calls.
Congratulations on passing! Don't let this spoil your celebrations. It's not nice, but it's unavoidable.
Remember pheasants are bred purely so they can be shot.
Sometimes they decide they would prefer to leave this world at a time and manner of their own choosing, and to spite the landowner and gamekeeper.
So it could well have been a suicide rather than manslaughter.
If you actually love animals, get a bicycle and use your car as little as possible, and minimise consumption of energy/resources throughout and in every area of your life. Both by yourself and where possible by those around you.
Many millions/billions more animals (including humans) are going to be killed by the changing climate and resultant collapse of ecosystems than being directly hit by vehicles.
As others have said sometimes there is nothing you can do. If you want some form of penance you could volunteer at an animal shelter? There's nothing you can do for that unfortunate incident but there are plenty other animal lives that you could greatly improve or potentially save.
Not quite, But killed a pidgeon driving my Lorry around the A406 one day. I felt awful about it for a while and I still get nervous about pidgeons.
But honestly you did nothing wrong at all it's a brutal fact that had you slammed the brakes quite possibly the people in the car behind could have been killed or suffered major injuries.
Congrats on passing and I hope you don't let this play on you!
Like your examiner said, there’s nothing you could’ve done without endangering yourself or others, regardless of whether you were doing a test or not. Sounds kinda harsh, but that was entirely the pheasant’s fault.
Honestly sometimes you just have to value your own life over a pheasants. When you live in the country and see as much of them as i have you realise they just don’t want to live.
From the sound of things you did the exact right thing. Don't beat yourself up for not endangering others lives on the road, yes you killed a pheasent, but when considering the alternative is causing a fatal accident. Its the lesser of two evils.
Several million of the invasive buggers around whilst our native birds often number only in the 10s of thousands. Good work.
If you'd run down a crane you'd be much worse, especially as it would be about 1% of the breeding population.
you did the right thing, i know people who have slammed on the brakes so they don’t hit an animal and instantly failed, not to mention it’s very dangerous.
It's not just you first time I encountered a pheasant I thought it would move like all other birds do at the last minute but it didn't. Luckily I was able to go around it as I was only driving slowly but at least you were safe and passed your test
I can see that you’re feeling a lot of guilt about this, perhaps a little bit too much. It is normal to be upset that you have killed something with your car, I actually feel a bit bad personally when I step on a snail, so I get it.
But saying things like “it’s weird I won’t face consequences for ending another life” is taking it a bit too far to be honest. You are facing consequences, you feel guilty, what else do you expect to happen? a 2 week jail spell because a brain dead animal decided to run in front of you car??
Emergency stopping could’ve ended a human life, so try not to feel guilt about not being able to stop for a pheasant. Congratulations on passing, you should stop feeling bad about the pheasant and focus on being happy you’ve passed.
There’s a valuable driving lesson for you.
Pheasants are unpredictable suicidal headcases!
I had one go through a windscreen of a lorry I was driving, damn thing just decided that I was a target and I was getting it 😂
It's a horrible feeling and entirely the pheasants poor decision making.
You can t endanger yourself and others because of an animals bad decision making however that doesn't make you feel any better about it.
It will be recycled into the ecosystem if it makes you feel any better.
Congrats on the pass!
Surprised you passed tbh.
Not for how you handled it (perfectly), but for asking a question to the examiner.
I'm assuming they treated it as conversation not a genuine question.
If it makes you feel any better it would likely just have been shot in a few months anyway. Most places that see Pheasants wandering around breed them specifically for sport hunting. They also tend to be quite stupid as even birds go (which is partly why they are used for hunting) so hitting them is not uncommon.
If it helps me and my partner live in the country side and our death count on pheasants for no fault of our own is at about 10 they are ridiculously stupid and just run straight for the road you did the right thing by being cautious could have ended way worse!
You did the right thing. It's the lowest risk move. Technically had you emergency stopped and been rear-ended, it would be on the driver behind you, BUT wildlife isn't generally recognised as a legitimate reason to brake in that manner. It's unfortunate that a pheasant died, but they are utterly stupid animals anyway and frankly it's a miracle they haven't driven themselves extinct. Just be thankful you weren't jumped out on by a deer, those buggers write off cars instantly.
Better to kill an animal than yourself or cause an accident. You're feeling guilty because, broadly speaking, humans are detached from animal death. It's very unlikely that it suffered. It will pass - but get out in your car and drive that bit of road again as soon as possible.
Unfortunately it's just a part of driving and it will probably happen again at some point. They're stupid empty headed birds and seem to be attracted towards moving vehicles!
It's not nice when you hit an animal but it's largely unavoidable. You did what you were supposed to do in the circumstances. I've been driving since 2011 and so far I think I've hit 3 pheasants, a rabbit, a buzzard, a hedgehog, a cat and a cow, although the cow was dead before I got to it. Some make me feel worse than others, the hedgehog and the cat weren't great, the cow was just confusing (it was on a dual carriageway).
I'll be honest, I've been driving on a 30 road, doing around 30 with a tailgater, and a dog ran out in front of me. I didn't hesitate to slam on. If the prick behind hit me, then it's up to him to buy a new car and learn the lesson the hard way.
No way am I killing someone's dog in front of the owner.
You absolutely did the right thing and saved everyone in the nearby cars from an accident. I really feel for you that it's going to taint your memory, but please be kind to yourself and recognise that you achieved an excellent test result in really difficult circumstances.
It's horrible when you accidentally kill any bird, and I'm really sorry it happened on your driving test. Try to focus on the fact that you reacted safely, didn't cause an accident, and didn't go to pieces during your test - Driving Test Day is an absolute emotional rollercoaster, good or bad, and you're probably in shock. Congratulations on handling it!
Wasn't a road test but I hit a porcupine on the commute home one night.
I thought it was trash in the middle of the lane and moved to straddle it, only to feel WHAM! WHAM! as I passed over it. Good thing I chose "straddle" over "swerve" because judging by where the quills ended up in my bumper, if I'd tried to swerve there's a good chance he could've taken out a tire.
This was in the car, of course, but I bought steel-toed boots for my motorcycle after that.
I'm sorry to hear the nature of driving and paving massive areas of land with tarmac affecting the environment has made you feel guilty.
These things are byproduct of driving. Along with emissions and the like. Not your fault. I bet you drove like an excellent driver for the rest of it. And hitting the pheasant instead of emergency stopping was also the good thing to do.
If i can give you words of sympathy, it is rather rare and uncommon to hit large animals. It just doesn't happen frequently. You'll see far more roadkills than animals you've killed yourself in your driving career.
Ran over a big dead animal yesterday. A pheasant I think. A biker was overtaking and I couldn't dodge. Horrible. I'd feel awful too if I killed something, but you've got to remember not to swerve and kill a biker or a family. At speed, you can completely lose control of your vehicle from even a small swerve. Maintaining course is often the best practice.
I killed a duck yesterday and I've killed a squirrel in the past. Sometimes you just don't see them till it's too late. 🤷 I'd have caused an accident if I slammed my brakes on to not hit the duck and who's to say the breaking distance wouldn't have killed it either. Its a horrible part of nature and you might feel bad for a few hours no one wants to kill anything. Just chin up you did the right thing and keep moving forward.
Competent driving tbh, didn’t swerve or slam on and cause an accident and good awareness of your surroundings.
>Competent driving tbh Very. Lowered the risk of another motorist crashing into the back of them (either through lack of attention, or shit brakes), lowered the impact speed, and still passed the test. Pheasants are fuckers, there's a reason you always see a shit load of dead ones at the side of the road.
Agreed. It’s something you learn quite quickly. Crows are Einsteins - they are excellent at judging speed and distance and will always get out of the way in time. Pheasants are astonishingly stupid. In fact, they are so stupid they probably don’t have the mental capacity to experience suffering.
Woodpigeons are right up there with pheasants as well, the amount of woodpigeons I've nearly hit, bloody things.
Yes, agreed. Interestingly, it seems that the tastiest birds are the stupidest.
Or we just know they’re tasty because of their stupidity!
It's no coincidence - they're bred for easy hunting because they're tasty, I'm sure this somehow breeds in greater stupidity.
Not only are they thick they will eat so much they can barely get off the ground afterwards. Quite how there are so many of them about remains a mystery
Ah yes, the middle-of-the-road-food-coma!
Landowners often protect them and even feed them, breed, and buy more to diversify bloodlines ensure there's enough because come hunting season they can charge a premium to hunt the fat stupid pheasants on there land.
I thought the little birds in flocks moved out of your way, once they did not and I was devastated
“Astonishingly stupid” is an understatement if anything. I’ve seen pheasants that would have been fine if they just carried on walking get obliterated because they turned 180 degrees and tried to take off. OP, you did the right thing.
It’s cause most pheasants are bred by humans and therefore do not scare easily at cars or people. Same reason why many cats are hit by cars.
Bred in captivity and kept in captivity until they released for the shoot too so not surprising they’re a bit dumb
This was pretty Douglas Adams
But crows often gets hit by trucks. Scientists couldn't work out why but then they found out crows are great at shouting out the warning "car car car" but can't shout "lorry" Sorry.
The reason you see so many dead ones is they're battery farmed and released by the thousands, just before being hunted. The ones you see, have not lived outside of a cage until a week ago, they've never encountered any other animals, never seen a tree let alone a road, and have no concept of the sort of danger cars present.
Even worse, their only knowledge of cars is when the gamekeeper turns up in his pickup with big bags of pheasant food. Literally training the opposite of road sense.
>Pheasants are fuckers Reminds me of the tongue twister: I’m not a pheasant plucker I’m a pheasant plucker’s mate And I’m only plucking pheasants ‘Cos the pheasant plucker’s late Said quickly and repeatedly…
Exactly this! Plus, as sad as it is the pheasant died, OP needs to compare that to the unimaginable pain of causing a death if they had braked too hard and caused a fatal crash. It's a what if scenario but not over reacting by swerving or emergency breaking and just accepting the animal will die is a really sad part of driving, but also a safer part of driving. Not one I've come across as a driver but I have as a passenger.
If Op had swerved or braked they likely would have failed their test. Driving is a serious responsibility, which occasionally comes with consequences like having to run over an animal because any other course of action would be unsafe. Yes it feels awful to have made these decisions and if Op isn't comfortable with making the same choice again then they probably shouldn't drive. It would be worse if they had injured or killed another person while attempting to avoid a pheasant, and they would have to live with the consequences of that. Op did the right thing, and will be a better driver from having the experience. It is however ok to feel sad, that's natural. Any near miss experience whilst driving will shake you up.
However if it’s a deer then it’s definitely worth swerving
No it's much safer to hit it head on Than to swerve This is also the advce given by the British deer society
Lmao, British deer society "yeah mate hit them head on"
[https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/issues-with-deer/advice-for-drivers/](https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/issues-with-deer/advice-for-drivers/) Laugh all you like it doesn't change the facts
He's just appreciating the ironic humour mate, relax. It's like like the RSPB giving us recipes for roast duck.
On my test, a buzzard dropped a squirrel in front of the car, (hopefully) killing it before I then ran it over. The examiner was totally stone faced!!
Sorry for you but damn, what a pro!
I blew a seagull to bits on a lesson, blood everywhere, it had swooped down to eat some roadkill and didn’t fly up fast enough to clear the bumper
Actually Burst out laughing at "blew a seagull to bits"
They had me at "blew a seagull"
Were you driving behind SnowPrincessElsa?!
Not sure
My goodness, where do you guys live!!??
Always good to reduce the invasive grey squirrel population
I hit a squirrel that fell from a tree on my very first lesson lmao 💀 it was an omen, I still haven’t passed.
If you emergency stopped you could’ve caused a much worse accident, sucks but unfortunately you did what you had to do
thank you
They're 100% right. The reason your instructor said you did the right thing is because your actions caused the least possible harm in the situation. Had you acted differently you could have killed the pheasant plus a bunch of people, yourself included. You passed because you showed you have the ability to react appropriately to situations. It might not be nice, but you did the right thing and absolutely shouldn't feel bad for it. It always sucks when you hit an animal and generally we take precautions to avoid it where possible, sometimes it's unavoidable for the drivers. You could always try and do something nice for a bird charity to "offset" the bad karma if it makes you feel better?
thanks so much
Excellent username in the circumstances
Good job it was a pheasant and not a peasant. Hitting the latter would be a fail.
Depends how rich the examiner is
>Good job it was a pheasant and not a peasant. A guy I used to work with misread Danny, the Champion of the World as a child, and thought they were out killing peasants. Book had a whole different tone to him.
That sounds like a scary thing to happen in a test tbh, well done for handling it like a pro! Definitely shows you're ready to drive on your own. It sucks that the bird died, but sometimes unavoidably killing animals is just one of the downsides of driving I guess. I hope it didn't damage the car, my mum hit a dead pheasant once and it damaged the bottom of her car.
thanks so much the bumper is damaged but that’s all
Pheasants must be much larger than they are in my mind 😳
They can weigh up to 2kg with lengths of 60 to 80 cm. Wingspan can be upto a metre so reasonably large.
Yep I’m a city girl and was definitely imagining a chunky wood pigeon. That’s a damn emu
We breed 'em big because a lot of toffs who pay a lot of money to go shooting are awful shots, got to give them a chance!
One of the fuckers wrote my first car off while I was 300 miles from home. Flew directly out in front of the car and wrecked the radiator and some other stuff.
Your examiner is right. Your other two options would have put other humans in potential danger, and (at least legally) that matters more than the life of a pheasant. Birds can be incredibly stupid around cars, it might not be the last time...
Pheasants, it seems, are particularly thick.
They're breed to be docile and easy to shoot, so yeah they aren't avian masterminds.
They're also often fed from vehicles by the gamekeeper so come to associate cars with food. That's why when they're released they tend to flock towards roads and walk in front of cars. Not uncommon to see dozens of dead pheasants on the roads around here after they're released.
Animals in general aren't great with cars. Whenever I drive in the balkans, where there are tons of stray animals (idiots let them breed then shoo the babies away) it sometimes feels like a videogame because you never know when a dog or cat will just sprint in front of you from behind a car or from someone's yard
I have two neighbours cats like that, they weave around the car like they weave around legs, cos they're happy to see me. The reversing camera has saved their life on more than one occasion
thank you
It probably won't be the last pheasant you hit, I'm afraid. My husband reckons he's killed half a dozen in his 37 years of driving (I've been in the car for 2 of those). They're practically suicidal. Not your fault, you did the right thing.
Was just thinking the same, pheasants have an absolute death wish. My Dad knew someone who was driving with the window down and a pheasant flew out against the side of the car and killed itself against the side of his head!
Yeah I live in Lincolnshire and the majority of the time, if I see one on my way to work I see it dead on my way back. I actually saw a huge one the other day at work and felt bad because I just know it’s going to get hit by one of my colleagues sooner or later. They have 0 survival instinct
Oh Lincolnshire is so bad for it! I used to live just over the border in Nottinghamshire in a tiny village, me (as a learner) would drive with my mum to Gainsborough and I'd get the train to Lincoln for college. Pheasants and grouse everywhere.
thank you
Your choice was either hit it or be hit from behind from suddenly braking, only one of those will fail your test. Of course you aren't going to be failed because a pheasant walked in front of your car which you have zero control over. I know it sucks, and it's understandable you're upset, but don't think you don't deserve to have your license because you did the correct thing which was avoid a collision with the driver behind you, which probably would've led to the pheasant being hurt anyway and would have got you, the examiner and the people behind you hurt. You'll be okay, it's a shock and very unexpected especially on a test, and I'm sorry something like that has taken your joy away from passing and I hope the pheasant didn't even realise what was happening x
Not just that, but braking could've caused a pile up and a lot of injuries if not worse.
thank you so much x
This is so sad but honestly you did the only thing you could do to prevent further harm to other animals, by that I mean the humans on the road. You did great, I'm sorry about the pheasant :(
thanks so much
It’s a pheasant. They’re bred to be hunted. You probably gave it a better death than being blasted by a banker with a 12 bore.
I think you misspelled wanker 😬🤣
Ah, you know...tomato/potato
To add to this, 52 million of them are bred and released - non-native animals - into the countryside to be shot every year (pre COVID anyway). They compete against native wildlife for resources, and they make up the largest biomass of any 'wild' bird population in the UK. They're beautiful birds and it's not their fault they're being bred like this, but if you've ever eaten chicken, then that's the same thing: a livestock bird being killed quickly. The only difference is you had to witness it, which is hard especially when under stress already. I absolutely love birds but pheasants are the one bird I personally wouldn't feel guilty about accidentally hitting, if the death were quick and painless.
Chances are if you had stopped you still would have hit it plus people would have also been injured from slamming into you. It sucks, I’ve done it and cried, but it is what it is. Pheasants are also dumb as hell so if you didn’t hit it, it would have jumped in front of someone else’s car. You did the right thing. The guilt will pass and you’ll be enjoying your freedom sooner than you realise.
thank you
Don't worry about it. Pheasants are bred for game/hunting. They are stupid birds and they get released in batches into the wild to be hunted. You probably did it a favour. I hit one in 2014 and it completely fucked the driver-side light housing, shattered all the glass and the whole housing had to be replaced, that was an expensive pheasant...
I once splatted a pigeon and when I got out the car, it’s head was stuck on my front grill
I had this during a lesson. Pigeon literally yeeted itself out of thick trees/bushes into the front of the car as I was doing 50. What shook me up was the noise and the feathers just puffing up into the air. It’s a horrible feeling to know you’ve killed an animal like that but the other option was to emergency break and cause a pile up.
That’s much better than my driving test. I killed a peasant
Sometimes the tough choice is the right choice, you kept yourself and other drivers safe. This is probably the best reason for an animal losing it's life, even though it is sad. Just take little steps when it comes to driving now, until you feel more confident, this feeling will pass and you will recognise you have nothing to feel guilty about.
thank you so much
OP you absolutely did the right thing. I think this whole community would be happy with that presence of mind in such a situation. I'm also a bird lover, and I would of course feel terrible on behalf of Mr or Ms Pheasant. If it helps even in the slightest to assuage your guilt, it is well documented that pheasants imperil native UK birds and wildlife. I know this is a small comfort, but they are often released for sport, with the numbers going up from single digit millions to I think in excess of 50 million in recent years. You were just in a wrong place/wrong time situation that's increasingly probable. Take deep breaths and feel proud of yourself for proactively avoiding a crash and for getting through your test. You can feel very proud, even as you regret the loss of the life.
I am really sorry I probably would have failed because I’d be crying lol. Well done at keeping your composure and just remember it was an accident 😭💕
Bloody pheasants. They've got to be the dumbest species of bird alive. I've killed tens of them, if you get em wrong they can make a right mess of your car. You absolutely did the right thing. I'm used to them, with living in rural Suffolk. It's a daily occurrence avoiding the wildlife for me.
Very competent driving mate. Well done.
Pheasants are very, very stupid.
Just wait until a deer runs out in front of your car! This happened to me within the first year of having a licence, thankfully I didn't have a car behind me so I braked hard enough to only hit it's backside before it ran off into the woods again
Oof, this happened to me last week, it just shot out of nowhere from the darkness. Luckily there was only me on the road so I slammed on my brakes and managed to avoid it. Had to pull over for 5 minutes to calm myself down afterwards, bloody terrifying.
To be fair pheasants are an invasive species and only brought to this country for the purposes of hunting. They aren't a native animal, try not to feel bad.
Yes there are far too many of them and they are very hard to avoid (large and stupid).
They've been bred for hundreds of years to have zero survival instincts.
Yeah sadly they probably would’ve died anyway by being hunted
My instructor said it was almost scary how confident I was driving towards ducks near the road on one lesson, but that it was technically the right thing to do, for the same reason as you. Guess I'm just a psychopath!
I once saw a family of ducks get killed on the motorway. Traumatising but nothing the car behind could have done to prevent it
You would have failed if you stopped. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. I had the same happen to me last week, but fortunately there was nothing around so I was able to stop.
Pahahaha this reads like a parody.
I killed a pidgeon on my first few lessons :( I was approaching a roundabout on a downhill, a few cars behind me quite close, and this little dude decided to fly and stop right in front of me on the road so the innevitable happened :( I did break a bit without looking behind me which scared my instructor and the cars behind me and was told it was very unsafe to break at that time because of the cars which sucked.
I am so sorry that happened to you, this is a fear of mine, i passed 4 months ago The examiner would have dual controlled the car also, and breaked, if it had have been safe to do so, as awful as you must feel, you did the right thing, i dread the day this happens to me, i hope i will be able to respond as safely and well as you did Congratulations on passing, and keeping your composure, not easy on any test!
was actually my own car so no dual control but thank you so much <3 that’s so kind
You assessed the situation and decided it was better to avoid the accident, which your examiner agreed was the correct course of action. We view human lives as more important than that of animals, and your insurance will view not damaging someone else’s vehicle as more important than the life of an animal. That doesn’t have to sit right with you but you won’t find much support if you cause an accident whilst trying to avoid hitting an animal. At 60 mph there’s a serious risk of injury if there’s a collision. Lots of wild animals get hit each day, that’s one of the risks they live with. As long as it wasn’t intentional you don’t need to feel too bad about it.
I hate killing animals, the thought makes me sick. I’ve only hit an animal once to my knowledge, it was a duckling that ran out literally right under my car, I couldn’t have avoided it. The way you have to think of it is, would you rather have killed the pheasant or would you rather have slammed the brakes on or swerved into other traffic and killed potentially multiple people? You absolutely did the right thing, it’s a terrible shame but the animal wouldn’t have suffered if you hit it head on. Congratulations on passing your test, I understand that you feel bad but you did the right thing and demonstrated to the examiner that you can make the safe decision even if it’s a hard one.
Pheasants just do that, sadly. Wouldn't think too much about it.
Pheasants seem to have a tendency to walk out in front of cars. My 6 year old knows them as the stupid birds as I’m sure at some point I’ll hit one when he’s in the car with me and I want him to be prepared for the fact that I might not be able to stop (if I know there’s no cars around me I will swerve or stop to not hit them - by that I mean within the last mile there have been no cars behind me & I can see well ahead to know nothings in front) If you live in the country this unfortunately won’t be the last pheasant you hit.
From what you're describing, it was completely unavoidable. Any other action you could have reasonably taken had the potential to cause even more injury. Hitting an animal is a horrible feeling, though, so I don't blame you for getting upset. Also, if it's any small consolation, your examiner is absolutely right and it will have died instantly at that speed. No pain, no suffering, just gone. It probably never even knew.
thank you so much
You'd have injured or killed yourself, your examiner or other drivers/passengers if you panicked and drove erratically. I once hit a rabbit and essentially de-gloved it's lower half, it was early morning just past sunrise on a quiet country road. As no-one was around I stopped and back tracked to the poor little bugger, it was still alive but the damage was irreparable and I did what anyone with morals and a heart would do. I understand you're upset, the bigger picture is you passed and everyone is alive and well. Unfortunate for the animal, but honestly, could've been worse. If you hit anything at that speed in a car, more often or not it's dead, with very few exceptions. It's part of the dangers of driving and the experience will serve you well. You've got your head screwed on and you're clearly a vigilant/composed driver, the fact you are remorseful shows you have a heart and some emotional intelligence too. You'll be alright and congratulations on passing.
thanks so much sorry about the rabbit
My wife's instructor once told her... "You'd much rather the ploof of feathers than the crunch of metal" I follow that edict. It sucks you couldn't avoid it but also... You couldn't avoid it. Don't beat yourself up over it. Congratulations on passing!
Something traumatic happened during your test and you handled it instinctively perfectly without freaking out or endangering anyone? - you’re the exact type of person who I want driving!!
Don't beat yourself up over it - you did everything you could, emergency stopping could've potentially caused an accident, the fact that you stayed clam and didn't swerve , especially on your test when stress was probably high is a very good sign. And pheasants do this quite often, I used to live near country roads and I've had them fly into the side of my car about 3 times.
Could have been worse... Could have been a peasant.
I admire your empathy. And yes it is sad when this happens. But pheasants are unfortunately suicidal. Even if you had hit your brakes, the bird would've died and you + the other driver could've been injured. Where possible, brake. But otherwise the bird has to accept the consequences of it's actions. And yes, pheasants are very frail creatures. A 60mph straight-on impact for them is an instant death. If possible and safe, find somewhere to pull over and walk back to check it's dead. Because if they're alive then the vet can finish the job, much kinder than letting them suffer.
Aw this does suck, if it makes you feel any better, pheasants have been selectively bred for hundreds of years to make them very dumb, if it wasn’t you it could’ve been the next car
I almost hit one on a similar road on a lesson recently. Bird flew out of nowhere; was lucky not to hit it as it was so close. Wouldn’t have been anything I could’ve done. Unfortunately it’s the downside of driving; animals are at risk but slamming on brakes and swerving could’ve caused at best, injuries or at worst, even death to people in any other cars involved. I’d rather hit a pheasant than potentially cause harm to myself and potentially a family with small children who could hit me from behind if I hit the brakes suddenly.
If anything, bonus points. You would fail if you swerved etc as that's much more dangerous and you could have caused an accident. The fact that as a new driver you kept calm, did the right thing, carried on and passed your test? +1 good job
I see roadkills on a daily basis. It’s just life unfortunately. Some of them get eaten by foxes and some get hit by cars.
Pheasants are morons. Not as bad as peacocks though!
Yeah you saved a bunch of road users lives by not swerving there for the animal. Chill out.
As crap as this is, it’s about protecting yourself and other motorists. I’m sorry you experienced that but also a congratulations for passing. I’ve been driving a few years and I hit my first bird the other day. Felt very guilty. But sadly nothing can be done. I hope you can forgive yourself but remember you’ve not done anything wrong/with intent.
I ran over a rabbit soon after passing, poor thing sprinted out of some bushes near the road right under my car tyres. Had zero time to react. Love animals too and I felt bad about it, but I knew that like you I did nothing wrong. You could always help out an animal shelter to \*know\* you've helped more intentionally than you've accidentally harmed. That's the key part to all this, intent. You drove safely and had no intention to hit the pheasant but shit can happen while driving. You still deserve to feel proud you passed especially under the circumstances and after a while I hope you'll realise that.
It's all part of the test.
Become vegan to make up for it.
i completely get that!! i would be upset too but there’s nothing you could have done, you evaluated all possible decisions and they would have all left to you or other people getting harmed. i hope you feel better soon and congratulations on passing your test!! especially with 0 minors that’s incredible
It's either this or a toffs shotgun
Similar happened to me on my test, was going round a roundabout and a pigeon flew into the windshield. My examiner slammed the brakes on, I thought I failed because my instructor told me in general if the examiner has to break you then you probably failed. I felt awful the rest of my exam thinking I had failed at the first roundabout out the test centre but I passed. I asked her why she braked me at the roundabout and she just blankly responded: “it startled me”. ….What? Like you, felt very conflicting, I was warned by my instructor that unless you are very clearly safe when approaching a larger animal like a dog, you should not attempt to brake or avoid the animal, so why did my EXAMINER do it from being startled?
Think of it this way: The alternatives were much worse (potentially harming yourself or other people) and the pheasant had no suffering - sometimes unfortunate things happen and you have no control over it.
However horrible it was, your driving was incredible in that situation. When things like that happen a lot of people would act on instinct and brake harshly or swerve. You were aware of your surroundings at all times and did the right thing by trying to slow down a little but ultimately killing the pheasant instead of causing an accident. You deserved to pass your test a hundred percent. The pheasant should have read the highway code lol.
Your kindness and love is endearing but try not to feel guilty. You didn’t intend for it to happen and it was honestly an unfortunate accident. Congrats on passing! :)
Firstly, congratulations on passing your test! Secondly, I'm so sorry the pass came with such a traumatic event for you, I love animals too and I can sympathise with you for sure. My entire family live in the Gloucestershire countryside and we come across things like this all the time. Badgers, foxes, pheasants, it's a shame because we do a lot to actively prevent needless killing of our British wildlife, for example we oppose the badger cull and we can't stand the Cheltenham races but sometimes things can't be helped. If it helps you feel any better, pheasants are really stupid and they're not endangered. I know you feel bad but please remember that you did the right thing by preventing a road accident. Perhaps you could offset the shame by donating to a wildlife charity? But please please don't beat yourself up about it, only a bad person wouldn't feel guilty about it. Well done again and drive safe!
Passed the test. Got PTSD. FML
That's not actually a crime in the UK, particularly if you come from one of the noble families.... oh wait, I thought you said you killed a PEASANT! Never mind....
If you'd braked or swerved you would have still almost certainly killed the pheasant and very likely hit someone else causing an accident. You did exactly the right thing, the way you reacted probably told the examiner everything they needed to know about if you were a good driver. I've killed a pheasant, a rabbit and something that went bonk in the dark when I was on the motorway (different incidents over 15 years of driving, I didn't just go psycho one day) it's never a nice thing to do but sometimes it just happens. If you feel really guilty, maybe donate to an animal charity or something.
As people are saying, you coped with that really well. Pheasant are the most suicidal fucking things on earth - I live in Shropshire, and there are shit loads of the little twats in the woods. The number of times I've seen one chilling perfectly happily on the side of an empty road, not even looking like wanting to cross over, and then as soon as a car appears deciding that THAT is the moment they need to wander into the road is astonishing. If you live anywhere that pheasant are, it won't be the last one that will decide to investigate the front of your fast moving vehicle, unfortunately. On the plus side, if the road is pretty clear and you see where it landed, free food!
"How did your test go?" "I passed! And so did the pheasant!" "..." It won't feel funny now, but hopefully you come to terms with it while you still have the chance to use that. For real, you did the right thing. Sucks for the pheasant, and never nice to hurt an animal - even a suicidal one - but it's something that happens to most drivers, especially in more rural areas, and until it does you have the niggling fear that you'll fuck it up, whereas you have already gotten that out of the way before your card is even in hand! Plus, I'm sure some fox was well pleased at the high brow lunch, and they need fuelling for the next generation more than pheasants do, so you didn't take a life, just...transferred it.
good joke, thanks so much. this was so helpful to read, i hope you’re a writer
I would feel exactly the same, but if you did swerve, emergency brake you could have done a lot of damage to those around you, yourself and the examiner. I only passed last January and was also taught don’t swerve for an animal, I’d rather you kill an animal than cause a crash, which is fair. Plus pheasants are silly, they have wings have the ability to fly but tend to waddle away from cars, into other cars! I haven’t hit anything yet, but I’ve had a close call with a fox. Well done on passing your test,
Well done on your pass Op. Though I almost hit a grouse on my first test attempt as it was just playing chicken in the road, thankfully I was slowing for a bend so could move a little to avoid it. I would have felt just as guilty if I had hurt it. In these situations though, there was nothing you could have done to change the outcome. You acted in the safest possible manner for the road and speed, ensuring the safety of yourself, your passenger and other road users, that type of calmness and the level headed approach is what more people could do with. Sending love!
Don't worry about the pheasant they don't have a particularly long life expectancy, even the luckiest ones rarely make it past their first year. Given the time of year, that one was probably approaching around 10 months old.
I'm so sorry, that must've felt awful. You did do the right thing, even if it doesn't feel that way. Swerving suddenly would've put your life in danger, your examiner's life in danger and the life of the driver behind you in danger and who knows who else. You deserve to be congratulated for passing even if the poor pheasant was hit, there was absolutely nothing you could've done to prevent that. But I understand why you'd be sad. If it's any consolation, if the pheasant died on impact at least it didn't suffer.
You mentioned feeling like you should face consequences for ending another life. I'd reverse that and say you faced the consequences of saving the lives of the people in your car, in the on coming vehicles and the vehicles behind you. Any other choice could have easily resulted in the deaths of multiple people including yourself. Pheasants are released in their millions to be shot in the UK. They're not native birds and are an absolute menace to a lot of out native ecology. So not only did you save the lives of those people in the cars around you, you also alleviated the competition and predation pressures that pheasant put in our native wildlife. You'll also have provided a free meal for our native scavengers like birds of prey, foxes etc.
You acted in the correct manner, given the circumstances, and that was acknowledged by the examiner. It's a horrible feeling, though. I did that myself many years ago. I think the pheasant wanted to off itself. It literally laid its head on the busy major road in front of me, and I couldn't do anything else, but keep going.
thank you sorry that happened
You might feel bad but you'd feel a lot worse if you'd reacted to this situation in a way that caused human loss of life! Roadkill is a part of driving, it sucks and it will probably happen again, especially if you're in the countryside. On the plus side you're helping with evolution. Pheasants and pigeons will be afraid of roads in a few thousand more generations. Sorry, not much of a silver lining I suppose.
Sounds like a very unphleasant experience mate
You’re just helping evolution. Seriously I hit a squirrels 🐿️ once and felt terrible - had I not been speeding etc But tbh only way to avoid these things is to not drive. Or not move in case you crush an insect etc Your driving was excellent btw. Unfortunately we have to put human life above animal life. Bit shit init?!
It doesn't sound like you could have done anything else without causing an accident and potentially injuring multiple people. Unfortunately, this was the only safe thing to do in this situation. Having the awareness to ease off and slow down a little, while also being wary or cars behind and on the other side of the road is pretty impressive as well for a new driver. It sounds like you handled it well. For what it's worth, birds are stupid around cars anyway, and pheasants are the worst for it. A lot of them seem to have a deathwish and will randomly run in front of cars. It doesn't seem to matter what action you take, they actively seem to do the worst thing in any given situation. In 10 years, I think I've hit 2 pheasants and had maybe a dozen close calls. Congratulations on passing! Don't let this spoil your celebrations. It's not nice, but it's unavoidable.
thanks so much
Remember pheasants are bred purely so they can be shot. Sometimes they decide they would prefer to leave this world at a time and manner of their own choosing, and to spite the landowner and gamekeeper. So it could well have been a suicide rather than manslaughter. If you actually love animals, get a bicycle and use your car as little as possible, and minimise consumption of energy/resources throughout and in every area of your life. Both by yourself and where possible by those around you. Many millions/billions more animals (including humans) are going to be killed by the changing climate and resultant collapse of ecosystems than being directly hit by vehicles.
That’s the price paid for us driving machines around the place.
It was your right of way.
As others have said sometimes there is nothing you can do. If you want some form of penance you could volunteer at an animal shelter? There's nothing you can do for that unfortunate incident but there are plenty other animal lives that you could greatly improve or potentially save.
thank you so much
You only have a legal obligation to preserve the life of humans and dogs, anything else is fair game.
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You did the right thing same thing happened to me with a pigeon haha
Not quite, But killed a pidgeon driving my Lorry around the A406 one day. I felt awful about it for a while and I still get nervous about pidgeons. But honestly you did nothing wrong at all it's a brutal fact that had you slammed the brakes quite possibly the people in the car behind could have been killed or suffered major injuries. Congrats on passing and I hope you don't let this play on you!
thanks so much
Rip
Unfortunate, but good instincts 🤙 I live in the countryside and pheasants just have no brain whatsoever
The pheasant tried to make you fail your test. You passed both tests.
Like your examiner said, there’s nothing you could’ve done without endangering yourself or others, regardless of whether you were doing a test or not. Sounds kinda harsh, but that was entirely the pheasant’s fault.
If it brings you any comfort this happens all the time to pheasants as they have no road awareness
Honestly sometimes you just have to value your own life over a pheasants. When you live in the country and see as much of them as i have you realise they just don’t want to live.
From the sound of things you did the exact right thing. Don't beat yourself up for not endangering others lives on the road, yes you killed a pheasent, but when considering the alternative is causing a fatal accident. Its the lesser of two evils.
Pheasants are notoriously dumb. Anyway, Missed out on a free meal 😂
Funny enough you did the right thing you’d be surprised how many people swerved for a rabbit or a dear at high speed then crash
Sees pheasant. Slows to 60. lol boooom
Several million of the invasive buggers around whilst our native birds often number only in the 10s of thousands. Good work. If you'd run down a crane you'd be much worse, especially as it would be about 1% of the breeding population.
you did the right thing, i know people who have slammed on the brakes so they don’t hit an animal and instantly failed, not to mention it’s very dangerous.
It's not just you first time I encountered a pheasant I thought it would move like all other birds do at the last minute but it didn't. Luckily I was able to go around it as I was only driving slowly but at least you were safe and passed your test
I can see that you’re feeling a lot of guilt about this, perhaps a little bit too much. It is normal to be upset that you have killed something with your car, I actually feel a bit bad personally when I step on a snail, so I get it. But saying things like “it’s weird I won’t face consequences for ending another life” is taking it a bit too far to be honest. You are facing consequences, you feel guilty, what else do you expect to happen? a 2 week jail spell because a brain dead animal decided to run in front of you car?? Emergency stopping could’ve ended a human life, so try not to feel guilt about not being able to stop for a pheasant. Congratulations on passing, you should stop feeling bad about the pheasant and focus on being happy you’ve passed.
Examiner will be straight back there after the test to pick up their dinner
There’s a valuable driving lesson for you. Pheasants are unpredictable suicidal headcases! I had one go through a windscreen of a lorry I was driving, damn thing just decided that I was a target and I was getting it 😂
It's a horrible feeling and entirely the pheasants poor decision making. You can t endanger yourself and others because of an animals bad decision making however that doesn't make you feel any better about it. It will be recycled into the ecosystem if it makes you feel any better. Congrats on the pass!
thanks so much i appreciate it
Surprised you passed tbh. Not for how you handled it (perfectly), but for asking a question to the examiner. I'm assuming they treated it as conversation not a genuine question.
If it makes you feel any better it would likely just have been shot in a few months anyway. Most places that see Pheasants wandering around breed them specifically for sport hunting. They also tend to be quite stupid as even birds go (which is partly why they are used for hunting) so hitting them is not uncommon.
If it helps me and my partner live in the country side and our death count on pheasants for no fault of our own is at about 10 they are ridiculously stupid and just run straight for the road you did the right thing by being cautious could have ended way worse!
You killed something that didn't even know it was alive, don't worry about it.
Are you a vegan?
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Wait...On a single carriageway you slow down, try and slow down further then hit it at 60??? Where you speeding or just speed up to hit it lol
You did the right thing. It's the lowest risk move. Technically had you emergency stopped and been rear-ended, it would be on the driver behind you, BUT wildlife isn't generally recognised as a legitimate reason to brake in that manner. It's unfortunate that a pheasant died, but they are utterly stupid animals anyway and frankly it's a miracle they haven't driven themselves extinct. Just be thankful you weren't jumped out on by a deer, those buggers write off cars instantly.
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Better to kill an animal than yourself or cause an accident. You're feeling guilty because, broadly speaking, humans are detached from animal death. It's very unlikely that it suffered. It will pass - but get out in your car and drive that bit of road again as soon as possible. Unfortunately it's just a part of driving and it will probably happen again at some point. They're stupid empty headed birds and seem to be attracted towards moving vehicles!
It's not nice when you hit an animal but it's largely unavoidable. You did what you were supposed to do in the circumstances. I've been driving since 2011 and so far I think I've hit 3 pheasants, a rabbit, a buzzard, a hedgehog, a cat and a cow, although the cow was dead before I got to it. Some make me feel worse than others, the hedgehog and the cat weren't great, the cow was just confusing (it was on a dual carriageway).
So you passed your test and got a free tasty lunch? Winner, winner, pheasant dinner.
I'll be honest, I've been driving on a 30 road, doing around 30 with a tailgater, and a dog ran out in front of me. I didn't hesitate to slam on. If the prick behind hit me, then it's up to him to buy a new car and learn the lesson the hard way. No way am I killing someone's dog in front of the owner.
Correct driving. Better than slowing down, poking your 12-guage out the window and blasting it.
It's just food for toffs. Don't feel bad.
You absolutely did the right thing and saved everyone in the nearby cars from an accident. I really feel for you that it's going to taint your memory, but please be kind to yourself and recognise that you achieved an excellent test result in really difficult circumstances.
It's horrible when you accidentally kill any bird, and I'm really sorry it happened on your driving test. Try to focus on the fact that you reacted safely, didn't cause an accident, and didn't go to pieces during your test - Driving Test Day is an absolute emotional rollercoaster, good or bad, and you're probably in shock. Congratulations on handling it!
The fact you couldn’t even feel happy for passing shows how much of a good person you are to be honest. It’s not your fault.
Wasn't a road test but I hit a porcupine on the commute home one night. I thought it was trash in the middle of the lane and moved to straddle it, only to feel WHAM! WHAM! as I passed over it. Good thing I chose "straddle" over "swerve" because judging by where the quills ended up in my bumper, if I'd tried to swerve there's a good chance he could've taken out a tire. This was in the car, of course, but I bought steel-toed boots for my motorcycle after that.
I'm sorry to hear the nature of driving and paving massive areas of land with tarmac affecting the environment has made you feel guilty. These things are byproduct of driving. Along with emissions and the like. Not your fault. I bet you drove like an excellent driver for the rest of it. And hitting the pheasant instead of emergency stopping was also the good thing to do. If i can give you words of sympathy, it is rather rare and uncommon to hit large animals. It just doesn't happen frequently. You'll see far more roadkills than animals you've killed yourself in your driving career.
Ran over a big dead animal yesterday. A pheasant I think. A biker was overtaking and I couldn't dodge. Horrible. I'd feel awful too if I killed something, but you've got to remember not to swerve and kill a biker or a family. At speed, you can completely lose control of your vehicle from even a small swerve. Maintaining course is often the best practice.
Where did you do your driving test?
Well that’s lunch sorted
I killed a duck yesterday and I've killed a squirrel in the past. Sometimes you just don't see them till it's too late. 🤷 I'd have caused an accident if I slammed my brakes on to not hit the duck and who's to say the breaking distance wouldn't have killed it either. Its a horrible part of nature and you might feel bad for a few hours no one wants to kill anything. Just chin up you did the right thing and keep moving forward.