An Aussie family who live life on the road full-time in their caravan were given quite the fright this week when an unlikely animal smashed into their windscreen out of nowhere with a “sudden almighty bang”.
Veterinarian Dr Tania Mitchell and her husband Marcus, originally from Melbourne, were driving their 4WD along a road in Seymour in Victoria on Thursday with their young children when Marcus “saw a small movement” on the side of the road.
“There was a sudden almighty bang as something hit and shattered the windscreen, spraying broken glass into the cabin,” Tania told Yahoo News.
To their astonishment, it was a wild hare that had given the family “an incredible fright”.
Thankfully, they were only travelling at about 30 km/h and no one was injured. However, the hare didn’t survive the impact.
“We stopped to check, and it was a huge hare, approximately three kilograms… the hare jumped too high for the bull bar and made direct contact with the windscreen,” Tania recalled.
The animal collision caused significant damage to the family’s 4WD. Source: Supplied
Road collisions with invasive species and native animals on the rise
Wild hares only weigh up to five kilograms, but hitting any animal in a car can pose a significant risk to safety — both for the passengers and wildlife. In this instance, the slow speed of the car likely protected the family, with speed linked to the risk of injury in such cases.
According to Agriculture Victoria, hare populations exploded in the state shortly after they were introduced by European settlers in the 1860s. Considered an invasive species, hares can produce over four litters annually, each with two to five young.
In 2022, there were over 19,000 animal-related collisions in Australia according to car insurance giant AAMI, and many ended with serious injuries and even death. Over the last 12 months, the number of wildlife-related road collisions has increased by 22 per cent, according to the car insurer, and it’s believed more than half of Aussies have had at least one distressing collision with an animal while driving.
Tania believes the family avoided a more ominous fate this week thanks to the slow speed they were driving at the time, with their 4WD sustaining worse damage after colliding with kangaroos during the five years they’ve been on the road.
“It was lucky we were driving slowly and were otherwise OK so we could safely stop,” she said. “We have had kangaroos jump out in front of us before, but this was the first hare to damage our vehicle.”
Speed is the number one thing that drivers can control in a bid to lessen the risk of injury in animal collisions, which not only protects those in the car but also the animals themselves — with 10 million animals dying every year on our roads.
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