So I was driving back with my mum and brother after I picked up my brother from a party at around 1 in the morning and i was going on this road that had no lights for a good stretch. People normally go fast on this road like 60-70kmh and i was going at that speed when I say this grey blob, at first I thought it was a plastic bag so I didn’t really wonder to slow down but as I cam closer I saw it eyes n realised it was a cat or a kitten n I hit it as it ran across the road. I wanted to stop to see if it was okay n started freaking out but my mum n brother didn’t want me to and started yelling at me to just forget it and told me to stop being hysterical n just drive on but I couldn’t be so heartless, so I took a u turn and drove back to see if it was okay when my brother said he saw it running away n it wasn’t lying on the road nor did i see any blood or anything on the road. Is it possible that it could be alive. Now I feel so guilty that I can’t stop thinking about it.
Moved to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I have knocked on doors and asked around when I’ve been in situations like yours but most people I know would just put it behind them. It could very well be alive and uninjured; you didn’t actually hit it so much as straddle it. If you keep thinking about it go back to the scene and ask around or give a good look in daylight.
It’s sad to say but, unless the cat has a collar and you can get close enough to read the tag, there really isn’t much that anyone can expect you to do. In my neighborhood, stray and feral cats outnumber pet cats by about four to one. There’s no way that a driver could be expected to know the difference, let alone figure out which house the cat came from.
If the collar has a phone number on it, that’s a different story. Call the phone number and tell them the sad news. But remember that it wasn’t your fault. The pain you are feeling because of your sympathy is punishment that you don’t deserve, because you did nothing wrong.
I spent 12 years driving big trucks. The official company policy was Do Not Swerve To Avoid Hitting A Non-human Animal. There’s too much risk in hitting something else or causing something else to hit you. Road kill is a sorry fact of life. No one wants to do it, but it happens. Natural selection is said to improve the breed.
I’ve seen this happen on the road: car hits cat, cat looks to be horribly mangled, but has enough energy to scramble out of the road and into the shrubs alongside. Now it’s gone to ground, to lick its wounds…or to die. You’d never find it.
I was a passenger in a car, and a big dog ran right out in front. My thought was that the dog was a goner. But the driver threw us into a desperate skid/spin, and missed the dog. We ended up hitting the curb going backward, and not only destroyed the tire but bent the wheel. Expensive.
Did the driver to the right thing? Only you, as an individual, can judge. (I’d have braked, but not hard enough to lose control.)
If you were driving in a safe and responsible manner, you have nothing to feel guilty over. Things happen. You went back and looked, and that shows responsibility.
(I started to say that your speed sounded a bit too high, until I re-read and saw you were talking kmph, not mph.)
It ran on and on, like your sentences. Listen to your mother.
^you are funny! My Daddy was nearly killed hitting a Great Dane in a small car. Peeps keep
your pets out of the road.
P.S. the dog lived!
Either way, you can forget about running for MP.
If it makes the OP feel any better, years ago a bill was introduced in the Iowa state legislature to oblige any motorist who hit a cat or dog to stop and render assistance. The bill failed. One lawmaker notoriously observed that cats should not be part of the law (he remarked that “you squish a cat, and go on.”).
As I recall, he received a remarkable volume of hate mail from cat ladies.