Beware Badgers!

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

A cautionary tale.

When my husband arrived home the other night, he asked me to come out with 
him to look at his car. He had apparently hit a badger which had run across the 
road in front of him and having stopped the car some miles later discovered 
that coolant was flooding out.

Externally it looked undamaged (I don't know what the badger looked like) and 
we assumed that somehow a joint or a valve or something had become detached 
or damaged because of the impact.

When I took it to the garage, however, the story was somewhat different. This 
is a Volvo S60 we're talking about, so it's fairly substantial. At least by 
British standards <g>. The impact with the badger had split the main radiator 
and bent the two subsiduary ones in front of it, also bending the reinforcing 
bars behind the front bumper. They're all going to need replacing. Thank 
goodness he wasn't in our little MG, or the thing would probably have written it 
off!

What I don't understand is that I drive along the same route to school. I 
knew roughly where the accident had happened and was dreading seeing the poor 
creature next morning. But there was no sign of it whatsoever although there was 
the usual assortment of other dead wildlife. I can't really believe that it 
was off nursing a bad headache in the undergrowth somewhere.

So...don't pick a fight with a badger, even if you're in a car. The badger 
may win.

~Eloise
Who's only ever run over a rabbit and was severely traumatised by that.


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