Those of you who travel the flatlands of East Anglia will know the bottleneck stretch of A11 two lane, between Barton Mills and Thetford. And if you don’t, it’s a narrow, notorious track which is often blocked by accidents involving trucks and caravans, caravans and caravans, impatient car drivers and caravans, and wildlife and caravans… you get the picture.
Now it’s only about eight miles long in total and I tend to use it quite a lot. Over the last ten days or so, I’ve been heading back to Norwich early mornings, and couldn’t help but notice the large numbers of deer, Muntjac and Roe, either standing on the roadside contemplating suicide, or grazing on the grass verges, before deciding to cross over to that greener patch on the other side. I mean, out of ten trips, on eight I have seen large fluffy animals very, very close to the road!
I got to thinking about the consequences of hitting widlife. (And yeah, of course I see the various carcasses dotting our highways as I travel around the country!) There doesn’t seem to be anything done to discourage wildlife from simply meandering across some of our busiest roads and highways.
It struck me that in this H&S obsessed country, that spends vast sums on average speed cameras and virtually nothing on a sensible road structure, that there has to be a case against the central/local authority, if for any reason you are disabled by an accident caused by wildlife. (That’s not serious by the way!)
I’ve never hit anything on the road myself, despite seeing the results of what a kangaroo can do to a Ford (and it’s driver) at 70mph, so I don’t have the experience to judge the effects. Have you? What was the result? Tell me your experiences, I’m interested.
Oh, and here’s a pic to cheer you up!
