It suggests complacency. The ponies don't come from "nowhere" - they're a known hazard in the New Forest. Such a high accident rate is inexcusable.
As an audaxer, I am familiar with the deer problem but I've never hit a deer. ...
d.
I've damn nearly been hit by a deer when cycling. It jumped across the road right in front of me. I could smell it, & had an unpleasantly close view of just how sharp its hooves were. If it had misjudged my speed marginally, or if the bloke in front (Adrian Lawson, who some here may know) had braked a bit harder in response to the deer which was jumping across in front of him, it could have been very nasty.
Those two came from nowhere, through a gap in a hedge. Ponies can do the same. That doesn't excuse reckless drivers who ignore ponies they can see, or don't keep an eye out for them, but sometimes there's nothing you can do. Or do you suggest that all road users go dead slow on roads bordered by hedges, or where there is anything else that a large animal could be lurking behind?
I've run over & killed a squirrel that ran out of cover & went straight under my wheels, & had a near miss with a badger that shot out of undergrowth just behind the bike in front of me, & which I'd have hit if I hadn't braked hard. Nearly came off. It may not have realised there were two bikes.
