Video: Shocking moment a van driver ploughs into a goose on York road

York student Markella Apergi often takes video of geese crossing the road.

Like a lot of people, she finds the way they hold up the traffic while they amble to the other side funny.

So she was shocked and upset when this van driver didn’t stop, slow down or even drive around this bird. Instead it just ploughed into the goose and drove off.

Markella believes the goose was killed instantly.

Markella, who studies politics and economics at York University, was coming back from an early trip to the campus library when she stopped to film the goose at about 7am on Thursday (May 19).

“I was so shocked by what happened. That’s why the video stops so abruptly,” she told YorkMix.

‘I felt repulsed’

Markella said she thought the driver had killed the bird deliberately.

“The goose was standing in the middle of the road. It was early in the morning, the roads were empty – so empty he could have steered to the other side of the road.

“It was shocking. I felt repulsed. I couldn’t speak. Nobody was there.”

Markella reported the incident to the university and the police, but was told there was nothing they could do. She said:

She said the other birds started to circle the dead goose and one opened its wings and made distressed noises.

“It was very weird because her reaction was more human than the driver’s.”

Originally from Greece, Markella has been studying in York for three years. She was due to sit one of her final exams the day after filming this incident.

Many of her friends expressed their shock and sadness at the video on Facebook.

“That’s disgusting,” said James Morei. “When we forget our responsibility to nature, we make a mockery of our claims to higher intelligence, compassion, morality and justice.”