On a quiet rural stretch in the Deux-Sèvres, a handful of pigeons perched on the pavement proved enough to unleash a dramatic sequence of events, according to Ouest-France. This morning, around 10 a.m., a 24-year-old woman driver struck the birds while at the wheel on the D57, near the commune of Rom, before her car careened into a rollover, slammed into a tree, and burst into flames.
Despite the apparent ferocity of the scene, the young woman walked away without injury. She managed to exit the vehicle by breaking a window, aided by a witness who happened to be present, before being transported, shaken but unharmed, to the Poitiers University Hospital. A spectacular episode that raises a very concrete question for all motorists: how can a simple collision with pigeons turn into an accident on a road that seems ordinary?
On the D57, a collision with pigeons turns into a spectacular accident
The crash occurred on departmental road 57, heading toward Coué/Rom, outside of any town. The driver was traveling on this secondary road when pigeons crossed the roadway. Her car struck the birds, she was startled and lost control of the vehicle, which then rolled over several times before coming to rest against a roadside tree. The impact caused the car to catch fire, transforming what should have been a routine journey into an emergency scenario in a matter of seconds.
Inside, the situation grew critical. The young driver nonetheless managed to leave the car by breaking the window, with the aid of a witness at the scene. She was treated, shaken but apparently uninjured, and then transported as a precaution to the hospital. Officials did not specify the speed at which she was traveling or the weather conditions at the moment. What matters is that, even though the vehicle was badly damaged and ablaze, the driver escaped physically unscathed, underscoring both the potential brutality of this type of crash and the effectiveness of modern in-car protections.
Animals on the road: how a collision can lead to rollovers
At first glance, an episode like this can be hard to grasp. A pigeon or a small flock weighs almost nothing compared with a city car that weighs several tons, and it wouldn’t, by itself, force the driver to lose control. What unsettles the situation are the driver’s reactions behind the wheel: a sudden yank of the wheel, aggressive braking in a curve, tires biting into the shoulder, then a sudden gain in traction. On a road flanked by trees or by ditches, such a slip can quickly evolve into rollovers and a collision with a fixed obstacle, as happened near Rom.
In the face of small animals on the roadway, road-safety guidance tends to be fairly straightforward. The aim is to prevent endangering the vehicle’s occupants and other road users in an attempt to spare a small animal. Practical reflexes to keep in mind include:
- keep the steering wheel as straight as possible, avoiding sharp, sudden corrections;
- brake firmly in a straight line if distance allows, without locking the wheels;
- look far ahead to anticipate the presence of animals on the roadway;
- sometimes choosing to strike a small animal rather than risking a run-off the road by abruptly changing course.
On secondary roads like the D57, the proximity of trees to the roadway, ditches, or embankments can magnify the consequences of a loss of control. A car that leaves the roadway may overturn if its wheels catch on a bank or sink into a ditch, before hitting a fixed obstacle. When a fire starts after a collision, the priority remains the same: get out of the vehicle as quickly as possible, move a safe distance away, and call for help. A sequence like this shows how, even in the face of a few pigeons on the road, every driver’s reaction behind the wheel can make all the difference.
