Near miss.

Unread post by **alan s** » 10 Oct 2007, 22:34

Posted this elsewhere.
I saw it last weekend as it happened on the telly and reckoned besides this being one very lucky animal (as it happened on one of the quickest parts of the circuit, in fact a driver was killed here last year) the person who loaded up the clip had both a wicked sense of humour as well as impeccable timing, the way he slows down the action and plays a topical tune in the background, which to someone who knows the background to the music and the TV series it related to, highly amusing.

Here's what the result is if you hit one:

Take a close look at the front of the red car after the hit.
That happened a couple of years ago and the car had to pull out afterwards it was so badly damaged.
This happened in an area known as "The cutting" where the cars would have been doing a bit over half the speed they were in the near miss.
That puts the potential disaster into context!

Enjoy,

Alan S

micitroen · Unread post by **micitroen** » 11 Oct 2007, 11:01

Close thing that .....I am old enough to remember the TV series....wonder if the 'roo was trying to tell us that 'little Tommy was stuck down the well?' Lol.

Unread post by **alan s** » 11 Oct 2007, 22:41

All that saved him I reckon was the fact that he was running down the track not across it so much as happened in the second clip.
I was driving home one night a few years back and was driving a Mazda MPV when my son in the rear seat yelled ROO!!
He was at least 6 foot tall and was coming straight at me. I locked up and when I was almost stopped he bounced off the drivers side rear vision mirror, picked himself up, seemed to leer at me through the window and hopped off. Ha d no damage apart from having to readjust the mirror which by this time was up against my side window.
They seem to have little or no sense of self preservation when it comes to cars and trucks.

Alan S

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 12 Oct 2007, 00:00

It's a cunning kangaroo pilfering ploy.
They jump infront of a passing car, then play dead and wait for the driver of the vehicle to dress them up in expensive trinkets to take a photo of them, before quickly bouncing off into the sunset to dispose of their ill gotten gains the next morning to Freddie the Fence.
It's true, I read it on the interweb.

Unread post by **alan s** » 12 Oct 2007, 01:08

Actually where these things are usually a real trap is that they travel in pairs, so as you see one disappearing off the road to the left, another is often fast approaching from the right and you spot it just before it hits, which makes those drivers very lucky boys that its mate didn't arrive in the middle of all the 'festivities'. Well worth remembering if you ever visit out here and decide to "go bush."
I understand this year was a record for roos with 5 making an appearance at various times.
Many years ago though was the greatest classic of all, when a bloody horse managed to breach a fence and casually wandered down the track.
Those cars would have been doing 200+ kph and are hitting just under 300 at the end of conrod straight, so imagine hitting one at full pelt.

Alan S

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 12 Oct 2007, 06:41

There is a story about Status Quo's bus hitting a kangaroo when they were on tour in Australia. They got out to look and decided to dress it up and take pictures. The kangaroo turned out not to be dead after all and it hopped away into the distance wearing the driver's denim jacket. They all found this highly amusing until they realised the bus keys were in the pocket.

Almost certainly not true but still a good story.

UFO · Unread post by **UFO** » 12 Oct 2007, 13:39

Here is a snopes link for variations on that story

http://www.snopes.com/critters/malice/kangaroo.asp

Roos can be a problem, especially out in the bush. My wife hit one in the XM Sept last year and broke the right fog/indicator assembly, but that was the only damage as she was going slowly as she knew there were 'roos around. She was driving through Kosciuszko Nat Park (Snowy Mountains) at the time and it was dusk. 'Roos move around most at dawn and dusk. She was very lucky though as this area also has wild horses. Hitting a 60kg 'roo is far preferable to hitting 600kg of horse.

I think may of us have seen pics of what deer etc do to cars when you take the legs out from under them! Remember the two CXs in Scandanavia last year - within 2 weeks of each other

The wild horse (affectionately known as brumbies!) wander around all over the place but the greeny/lefty element in Aus are against culling them because of our "heritage". Mind you most people will swerve on the road to kill a rabbit, cane toad or even native animals such as snakes. But no, Banjo bloody Paterson wrote the bloody Man from Snowy River and now we are all supposed to go teary eyed when a wild horse decimates our fragile environment.

Anyway, as for the 'roos, you learn to live with them and crashes happen. Most people get smart and have a break for a meal around dusk if they are driving long distances at night. Sometimes too the front passenger is roo spotter.

One of my cousins had one bounce through his open driver's window into the inside of his ute (pickup) a few years back. Now a roo's back claws literally can rip your guts open. Steve did the best thing he could. He skidded the ute to a halt and got the hell out. The roo got out a short time later and hopped away.