Rural bend, an animal, and a decision about the scene
At dusk on a country road with a 90 km/h limit you are doing 80 km/h. A deer steps out about 40 m ahead. You brake hard and steer slightly right; you strike the animal a glancing blow and stop partly on the verge, your front left wing dented and the left headlight out. The deer has run off into the field. Your passenger has a bleeding cut on the forehead from the sun visor and says she feels dizzy. There is no other traffic. You have a first-aid kit, a warning triangle and a phone with good signal. Your car is drivable but the left headlight does not work. It is now nearly dark.
1. Deal with the injured passenger first. Set out what you check and do, and what you must not do.
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Assess before you treat.
- Check responsiveness and the injury. Ask her name, where she is, what happened. Dizziness after a head impact raises the possibility of concussion; a worsening headache, vomiting, confusion, drowsiness, unequal pupils or clear fluid from the nose or ear are red flags requiring urgent medical assessment.
- Control the bleeding with a clean dressing from the kit, pressing firmly on the cut for several minutes. Do not press on a suspected skull fracture - if the cut is over a depressed or obviously deformed area, cover it loosely instead.
- Keep her still and warm. Sit her down, do not let her walk about, and do not let her sleep if she is drowsy or confused - keep talking to her.
- Call the emergency services and describe the head injury and the dizziness; follow their instructions.
Do not: give her food or drink (she may need surgery); do not remove a foreign body from the wound; do not move her neck forcibly if she complains of neck pain - support the head instead. If she becomes unresponsive but is breathing, place her in the recovery position and monitor breathing until help arrives.
2. You must make the scene safe and report the incident. Explain what you do about the vehicle, the warning triangle and the deer.
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Make the scene safe:
- Hazard lights on, car as far onto the verge as possible, wheels straight.
- Warning triangle placed on the road behind the car at a distance appropriate to the 90 km/h limit - roughly 50–100 m back, and only if you can place it without walking into the path of traffic. At dusk, place it and get off the carriageway immediately.
- Hi-vis and a torch if you have them; stand off the road, not behind the car.
Report it: a collision with a wild animal that causes damage or injury must be reported to the police. Report the collision, the location, the injury to your passenger and the damage to the car. Note the time.
The deer: do not approach or try to move an injured wild animal - it can kick or charge. Tell the police where it went; they will arrange for it to be dealt with. Do not load it into the car.
3. The car is drivable but the left headlight is out and it is now dark. Decide whether to drive home 15 km or wait for recovery, and justify it.
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Do not drive home on one headlight in the dark.
- Legal and safety position: a car with a defective obligatory lighting unit is not in a roadworthy condition for night driving. Driving it invites a police stop and, more importantly, makes you hard to see and hard to judge - oncoming drivers may read a single light as a motorcycle and misjudge your width.
- Damage may be more than cosmetic: a glancing blow that dents a wing can also have damaged the wheel arch liner, the suspension mounting or the alignment. The car may not track straight at 80 km/h.
- The passenger's condition is the deciding factor: someone dizzy after a head impact should be assessed by a doctor, not driven home in a damaged car.
Correct course: call for recovery, wait in a safe place off the road with hazard lights on, and arrange medical assessment for the passenger. If the car must be moved before recovery arrives, move it only as far as a safe parking place, not 15 km home.