I hit a kangaroo!! :( WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO OF DEAD ANIMAL

[williswoody]

Haven't posted in a while, thought I'd share with you.

Anyway, I'm from Australia (live out in the country), and was driving home from work late the other night, and decided to go a different route home, for a bit of a drive, just for something different. So here I was, not really concentrating (cos I'm still a P plater and I haven't really learned how haha) and all of a sudden this kangaroo jumps out in front of me. I slammed on the breaks, but didn't swerve or anything and felt it hit. I pulled over the side of the road, but didn't see any damage til I got home.

Basically there is a dent in the underneath thingy of the car, and I lost the right fog light. No big loss, it never worked properly anyway. And I hardly ever need them. But I went out the next morning to see if I could find the light, and this is what I see.

I sure as hell hope my little 360 didn't do all THAT damage. But then again, it should do a lot to keep me safe, being Volvo and all

Should I just be able to get this popped back out, rebent, or whatever? Or will I have buy a whole-new metal front part? And the fog-light, is there any sort of specific kind for this model of car or not? Thanks.

Anyway, I sure have learnt from this experience. Concenrate, and don't go back ways haha. Hopefully I haven't grossed anyone out either.

EDIT: Just realized there is skid-marks on the road from me, I'd say. So there's now way I could have done that to the roo. Now I don't feel so bad anymore... even though I still killed it.

[macplaxton]

You didn't take a roo out (or it was a , the front of even a Volvo would be a lot worse for wear if you did.

If you took anything out, then it must have been something like a mini-wallaby type of thing. Maybe. I dunno.

I've seen the what an average-sized sheep can do to the front of a car and it's massive.

btw, I'm not grossed out at all, but then again I can watch Prof. von Hagens doing an autopsy on the telly while having me dinner.

[jtbo]

Even a rabbit can do quite a bit of damage, but that roo looks like to be rather small one.

Rabbit did cause quite bit of damage to my 240 once, lost one body trim that is above bumper, also bumper bent and front air dam dislocated. I was driving when tired, only around 60 kph, but only saw something gray and sudden bam, lot of odd noises under the car and then bit of jump, drove 400km until stopped, as I said I was tired and brain did not work too well, but I guess it was a rabbit, plastic cover of bumper got deep scratches from that one too.

Not so long ago hit rabbit with french crap, had already wrecked that end of bumper when huge piece of ice and snow from oncoming lorry hit me, fixed with expanding foam and metal wire + cardboard, now rabbit did go trough that of course.

I have managed to get more rabbits with car than by hunting, my driving happends to be at such times that rabbits and other nocturnal+dark time animals are jumping onto road. Lot of encounters with those big mooses too. Statistically I should be dead by sheer number of encounters, but I have managed to steer clear so far, not quite often that I could have been stopped, they are quite fast and hard to see.

[Hell Driver]

You might be able to bend some of that out, drill holes in it, screw some self taping screws (Nuts and bolts would be better if you can get access through the back) in the holes, put some wire round them and pull out with some sort of straining device fixed to something solid. I did it using a monkey strainer (fencing tool for straining barbed wire etc.) anchored to another 340 tow hitch! Then you will need to remove all the paint & under seal from the area to fill flat and re-paint & under seal. At least it's an area where imperfections don't show up easily.

The fog lights are specific to 300's, may be hard to find over there.

I used to drive a lot quicker at night, but over the last few years I've decided to that I've just been lucky so far and slowed down. Deer have become a lot more common here in the last 10-15 years, I would imagine that they could end up through a windscreen with nasty consequences for all involved. Motorways feel safer due to the greater space, but country roads through woods are asking for trouble over here!

[jtbo]

Deers seem to be problem only with bigger cars, with smaller ones they seem to end up into engine bay, but with big ones:
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=13888 Don't open the link and don't watch pics unless you are emotionless, not eating and alone etc. Shows what can happen, but it is not pretty and might shock.

Cleaning it up is something that I always think when I see those photos, I would perhaps pay someone to do the cleanup...

[williswoody]

You didn't take a roo out (or it was a , the front of even a Volvo would be a lot worse for wear if you did.

If you took anything out, then it must have been something like a mini-wallaby type of thing. Maybe. I dunno.

Yeah, it probly was a wallabe. I still don't know the difference between roos and wallabies, which is quite sad. So I just call them roos and yeah it was quite small, but when it happened, I swear it could have been massive. I'd say it was just part of the moment I guess, made me think I saw something I didn't.

I have managed to get more rabbits with car than by hunting, my driving happends to be at such times that rabbits and other nocturnal+dark time animals are jumping onto road. Lot of encounters with those big mooses too. Statistically I should be dead by sheer number of encounters, but I have managed to steer clear so far, not quite often that I could have been stopped, they are quite fast and hard to see.

Haha, yea we're always lucky with that well, most of us. And I agree with the hunting, my dad and brother often go hunting for various animals, mainly pigs, but also sometimes roos and stuff, and come back home with nothing. They could just go for a drive.

The fog lights are specific to 300's, may be hard to find over there.

I used to drive a lot quicker at night, but over the last few years I've decided to that I've just been lucky so far and slowed down. Deer have become a lot more common here in the last 10-15 years, I would imagine that they could end up through a windscreen with nasty consequences for all involved. Motorways feel safer due to the greater space, but country roads through woods are asking for trouble over here!

Thank you I'll give it a go. Damn, I thought Australia was like one of the few with all these stray animals around, but I guess every country must have a different animal that poses a driving threat? I always drive around 90km/p/h on the highways because of the safeness (limits 100) but go around 70-80 on country roads... my mum was really strict about this on my Learners.

Deers seem to be problem only with bigger cars, with smaller ones they seem to end up into engine bay, but with big ones:
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=13888 Don't open the link and don't watch pics unless you are emotionless, not eating and alone etc. Shows what can happen, but it is not pretty and might shock.

Cleaning it up is something that I always think when I see those photos, I would perhaps pay someone to do the cleanup...

Now that is just gross. Imagine driving that car when the deer crashed into it, and all this blood just sprayed all over you and everything else... erghhh. Giving me the shivers thinkin about it.

[Chris_C]

We get a huge number of deer with the country side down here and badgers too. I've been very lucky, I've glanced a deer once or twice but always got the car stopped in time. Then it wont run away unless you flick your lights off....

[jtbo]

Ugly side of life often is gross, it is still reality of life which is something we must live with.

I have slowed down my driving pace during the years, lot less impacts now, but there are some always, kind of impossible to avoid them all.

Last autumn there was ton of forest chickens, that is really stupid animal, I think that even elk is not that stupid, you see forest chicken things wait until you are near and then they cross the road, while elk just runs to road , not waiting for car, then elk runs at front of car long time sometimes, until they veer off to bushes, when rabits don't get hit by car they also try to run at front of car, those are rather quick ones, close to 60kph I think

Once there was hundreds of elks (some reports did say thousands) running to same direction, they issued general warning on one town where I was as those were approaching a town, eventually they did not came into town, but passed few km away, those can be rather stupid when they are on the move, they are not turning easily, so better stay out of way.

They are kind of deers:


Often they just eat like here, but sometimes they run from woods and are quite quickly on road even on such places:

[Attack2001]

OHHHHH! you've gone and done it I loved that front panel! haha Its an easy fix according to the many i have spoken to, easy to do if you get it right Check that the box section running across the back isnt bent, should be straight, mines got a much bigger dent and mines straight. Were looking at pulling my one out soon, so i'll let you know how we do it if it gets done before you, on the other hand, if you get it done, dont forget to let me know please

Here's mine


Dent fwends

[williswoody]

Wow... I'm sorta glad I live in Australia now. I don't really fancy having a tangled up bunch of antlers lodged in my windscreen. PLUS a dent.

And @attack2001 - I love your car! It's so much more better than mine - mine has heaps of splattered-dead bugs all over the front of it. Yours, however, looks real nice!

Umm I'll just go have a look to see if my box thingy is still straight.. I'll be back.

5 minutes later... okay, well it's not entirely straight behind the dent-of-damage. A little bit bent. Here's some more (daytime) pictures of it, that I just took.

This is where it is slightly bent, underneath the front. Is this bad?

I'll definately keep you posted if you promise too I hope it don't cost much.

[Speedy88]

Nah looks fine, might be worth just yanking it back out again.

[volvosneverdie]

And this is why we all need chainsaws attracted to the front of our cars.

[pettaw]

Came across this one a bit late. Nasty damage, but boy you were lucky. I've seen mega damage done by roos, to much bigger cars and trucks with roo bars and everything. You guys in Aus are much more likely to hit roos than us Brits are to hit deer, badgers foxes etc. You do see some carnage and roadkill in certain parts of the country, but there are parts of Aus where you'll see roo bodies lying every few km or so and they're a real pest at night. There are parts of the outback where the only vehicles on the roads at night are large trucks because there's so much 'wildlife' roaming the roads at night that its just a matter of time before you hit something.

Anyway doesn't look as though its structural, well, not into the main chassis box sections anyway, so that's good. Erm, I would see if you can find somebody with a puller and try and pull that dent out. If not, then try knocking it out gently with a large block of wood. You'll almost certainly have cracked the paint somewhere so whilst there's no fog light in there, get some rust proofing spray into the inside of that section to stop any rot starting. Really though, to get it 100% right, you'll have to get a new panel in there at some point.

Good luck finding parts, they're getting very rare and difficult to find nowadays, but I don't think you'll need many. Fog lights turn up occasionally, and the lower panel might be available from Klokkenholm but I'm afraid I don't know who would be your supplier down under. Good thing for you is that because your Aussie dollars are worth so much, its probably almost as cheap to by stuff from abroad and get it shipped over.

Hope that helps.

[williswoody]

Haha chainsaws would definately help.

Thanks for all the very helpful advice pettaw! It will come very useful indeed. I've not been able to find any front panels or anything, but thats not suprising. I'll keep my eye out. I'll give it a go with the block of wood, and hope for the best, but I really would prefer a new panel I think to cover the empty fog light socket. Those lights never worked properly anyway, so I dunno whether I'll bother replacing it.

I found a photo I took of it when I got it, back in October 2011 (sorry about all my photographic updates if its annoying you BTW):

It sorta was a bit bent already, so this roo/wallaby didn't do anywhere near as much damage as I'd though. It was already pretty bent!

[macplaxton]

and the lower panel might be available from Klokkenholm

Can I have what you're having pettaw?

Carry on dreaming...