Late last night my daughter returned home very upset having hit a badger while driving home. She wasnt sure if it was dead but it stayed in the road. She was too frightened to get out the car being it was a dark wooded road and the badger if injured would have been viscious.
I am afraid I didnt know what we should do and really still feel bad today that the animal may have suffered. What do you do in these circumstances ? Dont think the rspca would have come out at 1pm in the morning and I certainly wouldnt have been able to take an wild animal to a vet even if they would have been interested.
Unfortunately  there are more and more badgers being found dead on the roads around us I have no idea why. Maybe  an increase in the badger population as well as foxes but its very sad

Your daughter was right not to get out and consider touching the badger.  The chances of it having bovine TB are far too high. Professionals handling badgers should wear both gloves and masks until they know what they are dealing with.

How sad for her; I would not have got out of the car as I have seen badgers turn, they are ferocious and of course you do not know what their health status is.
As I know you and I are in the same area I would have tried to contact the Beddington Wildlife people, having said that I am afraid that these things happen and you have to put your own safety first. It goes against our nature not to help if we think of an animal suffering.

yes sawheaties the wildlife people would have been a good idea unfortunately it was well after midnight. Maybe it is one of those  awful sad things its the idea of an animal suffering I cant stand

Some years ago I heard on local radio that a badger that had known to be hit by a car on a Friday night was found by walkers by the side of the road on Monday still alive. At the time I was driving the lenght on the Island most days and would often see them on the side of the road so I made the decision never to drive on by with out checking. I am aware of the dangers and Hubby is not impressed, I carry leather gloves and a long stick in the car so I can check from a distance. There used to be a badger recue that would come out but now I phone Highways and they have to deal with it. Can't drive past if there is a chance something is alive, parts of the Island are awash with pheasants and often pick them up (blanket & box also in the car) and take them to a local lady who will care for them. Do not take anything to the RCPCA as they take a donation and then put down.

Hope your daughter is ok after having a shock hitting the badger, I think she was right not to get out I know I wouldn't have done not out of not caring but I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of a badger turning.

Thank you for your concern yes my daughter is fine but upset. Apparently over the last few weeks there have been four deadbadgers on the same piece of roadand one inthe local high street very odd  Yhe road my daughter was on is wooded on both sides after farmland and not a busy road but can be fast. For future reference I have now got the phone number of the wildlife place sawheaties mentioned which do carry out a 24/7 service Not I add because I think we shall need it but at least I have it

The other option is calling the non emergency Police line and they'll normally find someone to deal with it as they are a protected species. I've stopped before now for a badger, gone to pick up my Dad and gone back to it in case it was still alive. But we have a lot of road kill around our roads of late too :-(... Wonder whats happening to them all? I mean for there to be so many more than normal dead on the side of the road.

Non emergency police line do you mean the local police stations line?. Yes I think we have more road kill atm no idea why though

If u come under the met then yes it'll be 0300 123 1212..
It's always handy to know yr local non emergency number.

Yes I do , thats funny thats not a number I recognise will put in my phone. We usally have to ring
south norwood on some direct number unless its changed. I dont make a habit of needing to ring the police emergency or not so it could have done lol Thanks for that sj

Is she sure it was moving in the first place, could it have already been dead in the road.  Maybe another car hit it or as a few cases lately, purposly killed and put in the raod as an accident.

Your daughters safety if paramount and at that time of night.  As everyone said they can be nasty and carry TB.

Sadly it ran out from the trees and into th side of the car. Won't go into the rest of the dtails except she stopped looked in the mirror and it was lying in the road.

i had a fox do that on the moterway of all places.  it does shake you up and i had no way of stopping as it was kicking out time at Meadowhall on a Friday night.

What a shame, hope your daughter feels better, I know how she feels. Some years ago I was caught in almost standing traffic coming off the M65 on Bonfire night. As I inched the car along I heard a thump at the side of the car and thought perhaps I'd hit a cardboard box. Since the traffic was stationary I got out for a look and was horrified to see it was a young roe deer that had run straight into the wheel, lying kicking like fury on its back. I was sure it had a broken leg or back and was in a state about what to do when an Asian taxi driver behind me got out of his car, calmly swung the deer upright on its legs and it raced off without harm into the trees! Bless that man, wherever he is. I think the deer were spooked by the fireworks and this little one broke away from the herd along the river--poor little thing. Of course for years after my sons were forever telling their friends and anyone who would listen about "the time mum ran over a deer on purpose." :(

Hope she feels better soon, I've been lucky never to have hit anything, though I had a narrow escape some years back with a badger in Reigate. My mum once had a deer run into her car and it wrote it off!

Back up and run over it again.

We have a country lane behind our home...thats used as a rat run to avoid the main road and very dark at night as no lights.
There is a dead badger there almost every day in fact last saturday there was two.
A couple of weeks back there was a young deer also.
They get collected by the local council I asume as they get removed very quickly.
All very sad but sometime's just unavoidable.

Thank you everybody. Gosh what stories people have to tell it so sad these beutiful creature and although often we cant avoid it it is horrid when you feel there is nothing you can do. I had forgotten years ago my oh hit deer going through the ashdown forest fortunately it died immediately but the damage to the car was enormous. Then I suppose some of these creatures are the size and weight of a human .
have told her in future dont get out drive carefully around that area in particular (its the road she often uses) and at least I have a number to ring now .

Your poor daughter, i felt so bad when i hit a bird.

But we have a lot of road kill around our roads of late too ... Wonder whats happening to them all? I mean for there to be so many more than normal dead on the side of the road.

Do you live in a rual area? I do and was told that Badger bating still goes on sadly and many get put at the side of the road to look like they were hit by a car.

Badger baiting now that's interesting I hope we havnt go that happening. I still can't work out how one ended up in the middle of the road in our high street it would have been a fair walk for a badger up the roads to get there. Foxes yes badgers odd. We are backing on to fields and then farmland the other way is into croydon and london rather mixed area

lol it wouldnt get dumped in the middle of the high st if it were a baiting casulty! That rarely happens now as DEFRA often like to pick up road kill badgers for TB monitoring in certain areas so the risk of dumping baited badgers is not worth taking any more.

Someone could have taken the poor thing maybe as a pet and the Badger had other ideas.  its usually humans that get them to strange places.  Proberbly under estimated its power.

This weeks local paper had a short article bringing peoples attention to the number of badgers that have been killed on the roads near us. In particular to 3 dead where my daughter hit one the other day. Apparently Feburay is the month the males go out looking for females and as we have anumber of big healthy badger sets in this area the poor badgers are at risk. SJ in particular the report asked for anyone involved in a collison with  a badger to ring the police( as you told me) who will the contact the appropriate badger conservation people.
Wll at least now I know my reason for the high numbers of deaths. Just have to drive carefully around here.We do have notices about deer perhaps badgers should be added lol
You wouldnt have expected that for Croydon after all the stuff you hear about the area.

That's good to hear its nothing sinister lol.

Amourous males losing their road sense to a bit of sex.  I can just imagine the warning the sign.

Lol ! Sounds like saturday night out in the clubs