Objects on the road

I was on my way to pick Angela from work when I noticed the taxi in front me slowed down to a halt before making a sudden lane change. Wondering what it was I saw that there was an empty plastic fruit basket in the middle of the lane. I wanted to avoid it but there were other traffic so I decided to see if it could pass under the car. However, it got stuck and that was when I decided to pull over to the side and try to get it out. When it was safe to do so, I engaged reverse gear but the sound of plastic dragging the hard bitumen road could still be heard. Thankfully it was not raining heavily but it was no drizzle either. I got out and tried to pull it out but it was harder than I thought. Went back into the car to empty my pocket in case my wallet and mobile phone might drop out. I tugged at the object and it came off. Did a check of the undercarriage and fortunately there was no damage at all. It was the cross bar that tugged the basket. By then I was quite wet. Dried myself and continued on my journey.

This made me recall an incident years ago when I was driving up to Exmouth which is 1,300km north of Perth. I had slowed to 120kmh when I noticed there was something up ahead. Slowing down further, I saw that it was a family of 4 sheep crossing the road. Blasting the horn hoping they would get out of the way, I slowed down further but it was a little too late. I grazed one of the sheep and it flew to the other one and it became a domino effect. I saw them being thrown off the road and I think they might have sustained some injuries especially the one that got the direct impact. Stopped the car at a safe spot and got out to check the damage. It was slight but there was a dent on the left fender and the bumper was smashed in. The car was still drivable but I knew I had to pay the rental company the damage access which I wisely reduced to just $150. Grateful that the animal did not go airborne and land on the car or else......