Skip to main content

The badger excuse

A driver in the UK had a rather unusual explanation following a crash involving his vehicle. He had been transporting a load of dead badgers that had been killed following a somewhat controversial cull, a move intended to halt the spread of disease amongst cattle. The man’s excuse was that the police radio he had been given, so as to help him avoid any animal rights protestors, had fallen from his grasp and under the brake pedal.
June 27, 2014 Read time: 1 min
A driver in the UK had a rather unusual explanation following a crash involving his vehicle. He had been transporting a load of dead badgers that had been killed following a somewhat controversial cull, a move intended to halt the spread of disease amongst cattle. The man’s excuse was that the police radio he had been given, so as to help him avoid any animal rights protestors, had fallen from his grasp and under the brake pedal. The man claimed this prevented him from stopping in time, resulting in the crash. Police investigating the incident however believed him to have fallen asleep at the wheel, a scenario the court thought correct and he was given penalty points and fined accordingly.

Related Content

  • Call for Government action after first UK road casualty rise since 2003
    June 28, 2012
    Road Safety Foundation (RSF) director, Dr Joanne Marden, has urged the government to get road safety policies “back on track” after new official figures revealed the first annual UK road casualty increase for eight years. The figures, contained in a government report titled Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: 2011, show that the annual number of people killed in road accidents increased by 3% from 1,850 in 2010 to 1,901 in 2011 – the first increase since 2003 despite a levelling off of vehicle traff
  • Bridge collapse on key I-5 route in Washington State
    June 24, 2013
    The news that a key highway bridge has collapsed in the US comes as gloomy reading for all in the highway sector. When a section of the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Skagit River in Washington failed in May 2013, a number of vehicles were plunged into the river. Luckily no-one was killed in the incident on the route, which is one of the main links between the US and Canada, and the parallel bridge was able to carry traffic, albeit with delays for users.
  • Regular speeders crash more often
    November 3, 2016
    Research from a UK insurance company that provides vehicles with black box, telematics technology throws a light on what causes crashes. According to the firm, Insure The Box, its analysis of around 5 billion km of driving data provides a crucial insight. The telematics pioneer uses black box data to target regular speeding culprits and provides safer driving support. According to the firm’s data analysis, drivers who speed more than 20% of the time increase their risk of having an accident by 87%. Meanw
  • Caterpillar Paving offers a guide to efficient night time paving practices
    October 3, 2014
    Efficient night-time paving operations can reduce construction costs and cut traffic delays - *Todd Mansell writes As roads become more congested, the user cost of daytime lane closures to accommodate road construction and paving has increased dramatically. One solution to lower user costs associated with traffic delays is to carry out more paving at night during off-peak times. However night-time paving brings new challenges to producing quality work in safely.