Does an elephant know the Highway Code?
They say that elephants never forget and that’s largely true – they’ve got an excellent memory.
But that doesn’t mean that you’d trust them to remember the Highway Code in its entirety.
Which is why when an elephant is crossing the road despite there being no pedestrian crossing, it’s probably wise to give them a wide berth.
And that’s exactly what happened in Thailand when a driver decided not to wait for an elephant to cross the road… seriously.
Sure, it’s difficult to ask an elephant to look for safe crossing routes, so it’s probably down to the driver to leave a bit more space in this instance.
While you’re not likely to see an elephant out on the road in the UK (unless there’s a Madagascar-style breakout from Chester Zoo), there’s every chance that you’ve seen animals on the road before.
But there are rules in place to keep you safe when it comes to animals, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users:
- Drivers must give way to pedestrians and cyclists at junctions, whether they’re crossing or waiting
- You must reduce your speed to less than 10mph and allow 2m of space when overtaking horses
It’s all a part of the Highway Code and the changes that saw the introduction of the ‘hierarchy’ of road users, which put more emphasis on making drivers responsible for the safety of other road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
I don’t think there’s anything specific on elephants, though.
