To swerve or not to swerve?

[Ct3833]

it depends, but key thing is dont any how swerve. 

not to swerve when travelling at high speed, otherwise the car may skid out of control

not to swerve when the traffic is crowded, otherwise one may hit other car beside him, worse is if there is a motorbike

not to swerve if one has no time to check side mirror

not to swerve when no more time to swerve, like in this case, he has already hit the volvo, just keep the steering straight, no choice.

to swerve when traveling at comfortable speed

to swerve if in front is a human being, not when it is a small animal. This is not being cruel but it is about choosing the less of the two evils

to swerve when one can be sure that there is no other cars or motorbike beside his car

Edited July 22, 2021 by Ct3833

[Atonchia]

24 minutes ago, Shibadog said:

 for me, i would consider the size of the animal. 

if animal is elephant, buffalo, cow etc, i will brake n swerve if road conditions permit. Maybe the same for a big pig/tapir. This mainly for my road trips in msia/thai. 

but then i also hv a habit of being mindful of the traffic behind/beside me as i drive. 

for smaller animals, it's usually safer to drive though without swerving. That's the recommendation by road authorities too, IIRC.

 so far i've hit birds n snakes, nothing bigger. Encountered a buffalo in south thai which i didn't argue with regarding right-of-way.

if u drive in south NZ, there's lots of roadkill. Birds, possums etc. If the driver swerved, he might end up going over a cliff.

Oz is scared of Roos. 

Usually is either with roos or trees. 

Both can be equally bad. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Atonchia

[SiLangKia]

I was driving in UK along some B roads in scotland back in 2015 on a holiday. A hare or was it a rabbit suddenly dashed out in front of the car when I rounded the corner, almost no time to react. Made the judgement call to run over it within that split second as I did not want to risk the life of 6 other passengers with me in the mammoth Ford Galaxy. No braking at all as it was really close and braking abruptly and sharply mid corner would upset the balance and weight transfer. 

 

1. cant swerve as I was unfamiliar with the handling characteristics of the behemoth plus the roads (1st time driving there)

2. It was a bend on a B road , if i swerved I would likely go off the road or flip the high CG vehicle

3. It was UK weather, drizzling with wet roads

Felt bad but lesser of two evils I guess.

Edited July 22, 2021 by SiLangKia

[Datsun366]

11 hours ago, inlinesix said:

Around Lorong Halus got a lot of stray dog.  Brake hard.  Don't swerve.

Another way….avoid this Lorong altogether until animal control task force sort it out Lor.

I did not know this is well known strays location. Thanks.

I once saw a full sized cocoa hound got run over it’s back on Lornie road by Macritchie many years back, that horror and screeching brake sound is horrible. Or instead of knocking the dog over in that rapid congested lane, the driver swerved and crashed into the neighbouring car containing me as a kid. It’s a clear choice. E brake would have caused a massive rear end and who knows the death and havoc among motorcyclists.
It’s a human and dog tragedy.

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Datsun366

[Macrosszero]

The Volvo did the right thing to brake hard. 

In countries with wildlife loitering along the roadsides, the locals always know not to swerve. It is stupid to do so.

In Australia as a foreigner, the locals told me the same. And don't drive in the dawn and dusk hours as they are most active. One of my associates hit a kangaroo with his truck, fortunately it had a bull bar. He put it out of its misery with a wheel wrench.

In America, a friend of a friend died in his brother's car when they swerved to avoid a deer. 

 

[kobayashiGT]

7 hours ago, Jamesc said:

I like dogs more than humans.

Save the dog and knock the human.

I guess I am like you! hahahha.

[Othello]

4 minutes ago, Macrosszero said:

The Volvo did the right thing to brake hard. 

In countries with wildlife loitering along the roadsides, the locals always know not to swerve. It is stupid to do so.

In Australia as a foreigner, the locals told me the same. And don't drive in the dawn and dusk hours as they are most active. One of my associates hit a kangaroo with his truck, fortunately it had a bull bar. He put it out of its misery with a wheel wrench.

In America, a friend of a friend died in his brother's car when they swerved to avoid a deer. 

 

Conditioned mindset will probably lead to action, but for us city folks ?? 

imo, no point discussing. Some people talk until damn easy ..... When it comes to the crunch, all go haywire. It's all down to individual instincts. Even if I let you go track practise 1000 times, the first dog you come across, one might do it differently. 

[Macrosszero]

2 minutes ago, Othello said:

Conditioned mindset will probably lead to action, but for us city folks ?? 

imo, no point discussing. Some people talk until damn easy ..... When it comes to the crunch, all go haywire. It's all down to individual instincts. Even if I let you go track practise 1000 times, the first dog you come across, one might do it differently. 

 

By your reasoning, the Volvo driver clearly isn't a city folk because he/she braked rather than swerve. 

Well, having lived at both places for some years and doing regular 500+ mile trips both up and down the East Coast of both places, that is something I remind myself I needed to do, along with looking for flashes of animals' eyes from the roadside as they reflect my headlight beam.

 

[BabyBlade]

7 hours ago, SiLangKia said:

I was driving in UK along some B roads in scotland back in 2015 on a holiday. A hare or was it a rabbit suddenly dashed out in front of the car when I rounded the corner, almost no time to react. Made the judgement call to run over it within that split second as I did not want to risk the life of 6 other passengers with me in the mammoth Ford Galaxy. No braking at all as it was really close and braking abruptly and sharply mid corner would upset the balance and weight transfer. 

 

1. cant swerve as I was unfamiliar with the handling characteristics of the behemoth plus the roads (1st time driving there)

2. It was a bend on a B road , if i swerved I would likely go off the road or flip the high CG vehicle

3. It was UK weather, drizzling with wet roads

Felt bad but lesser of two evils I guess.

Good morning SLK! 💟

Good call around the bend. Generally, I think rule of thumb is, if we do not have time to check for traffic before reacting, then the best decision is not to e-brake/brake hard or swerve. You never know if the car behind you is ferrying a passenger carrying a baby on the front seat and not secured in an infant car seat. One may feel sad for accidentally killing an animal but the consequences may be far worse in a serious accident resulting from hard braking or swerving. We may permanently change the course of our life or someone else's.

Of course like someone mentioned, there's no hard and fast rule. What we can do is to slow down if we notice any animals on the side of the road even if they are leashed, never know if they'll get spooked out by something and break their leash. I know for sure, because I've handled dogs with anxiety/fear. For the ones that just dart out of nowhere, close your eyes and pray. Ok I'm kidding. Lol.

We try to save lives but sometimes it may do more harm than good. 

[Othello]

23 minutes ago, Macrosszero said:

 

By your reasoning, the Volvo driver clearly isn't a city folk because he/she braked rather than swerve. 

Well, having lived at both places for some years and doing regular 500+ mile trips both up and down the East Coast of both places, that is something I remind myself I needed to do, along with looking for flashes of animals' eyes from the roadside as they reflect my headlight beam.

 

exactly my point. I was referring to people like you and foreigners who grew up in a different environment are probably more I likely to BANG then to swerve. 

City folks like us .... I cannot tell you what I'll do. I may or may not swerve. I really don't know. Cos my 25yrs driving experience have not exposed me to wild animals dashing across 😀

[Ct3833]

55 minutes ago, Othello said:

Conditioned mindset will probably lead to action, but for us city folks ?? 

imo, no point discussing. Some people talk until damn easy ..... When it comes to the crunch, all go haywire. It's all down to individual instincts. Even if I let you go track practise 1000 times, the first dog you come across, one might do it differently. 

It is still good to start a thread like this  for all to learn. By discussing all will get to learn, think, prepare so that one could take the best actions when encountering the same situation. This is also good when one drives in overseas, like in the US national park , one may encounter  big animals like bison, elk or bear, but these are usually slow animals,  Kangaroos skipping fast across the road in Australia are common and more difficult to predict and manage. Plan, drive slow and be careful is the best way to avoid such incidents  when driving overseas.

[Othello]

7 minutes ago, Ct3833 said:

It is still good to start a thread like this  for all to learn. By discussing all will get to learn, think, prepare so that one could take the best actions when encountering the same situation. This is also good when one drives in overseas, like in the US national park , one may encounter  big animals like bison, elk or bear, but these are usually slow animals,  Kangaroos skipping fast across the road in Australia are common and more difficult to predict and manage. Plan, drive slow and be careful is the best way to avoid such incidents  when driving overseas.

yeah, hopefully we will try to bang them down instead of swerving 

[BabyBlade]

5 minutes ago, Ct3833 said:

It is still good to start a thread like this  for all to learn. By discussing all will get to learn, think, prepare so that one could take the best actions when encountering the same situation. This is also good when one drives in overseas, like in the US national park , one may encounter  big animals like bison, elk or bear, but these are usually slow animals,  Kangaroos skipping fast across the road in Australia are common and more difficult to predict and manage. Plan, drive slow and be careful is the best way to avoid such incidents  when driving overseas.

Yes! That was my intention when I started this thread. To get people talking about it and creating awareness so if it does happen to us, we'll be able to perhaps hold back that instinct and possibly react better depending on the situation. But of course instincts are instincts, and our instincts will always be to avoid any collision. Just like the car that flipped turtle on the PIE last week. Was it a Jazz? I can't remember. If he had hit the car head on then it wouldn't have flipped. 

[BabyBlade]

5 minutes ago, Othello said:

yeah, hopefully we will try to bang them down instead of swerving 

You're missing the point🥴. It's not about banging down the animals but that sometimes taking evasive maneuver may actually cause more damage than what we intended for. Let's exclude vehicle repair costs here. I am referring to serious injuries to ourselves or our passengers/pedestrians/other drivers/motorcyclists around us. I do agree that hard braking is a better choice than swerving though.

[Darevil]

Hahaha, 

This remind me of the story "if my wife and mom fall into the swimming pool who would i save "

 

[Darevil]

Just now, BabyBlade said:

You're missing the point🥴. It's not about banging down the animals but that sometimes taking evasive maneuver may actually cause more damage than what we intended for. Let's exclude vehicle repair costs here. I am referring to serious injuries to ourselves or our passengers/pedestrians/other drivers/motorcyclists around us. 

you'll need a very quick damage assessment. 

[inlinesix]

22 minutes ago, Ct3833 said:

It is still good to start a thread like this  for all to learn. By discussing all will get to learn, think, prepare so that one could take the best actions when encountering the same situation. This is also good when one drives in overseas, like in the US national park , one may encounter  big animals like bison, elk or bear, but these are usually slow animals,  Kangaroos skipping fast across the road in Australia are common and more difficult to predict and manage. Plan, drive slow and be careful is the best way to avoid such incidents  when driving overseas.

You will encounter animals dashing across even driving in Msia.

Driving slow is not necessarily the best strategy when you need to drive for hours.

Just adhere to the speed limit will do.

[inlinesix]

15 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

Yes! That was my intention when I started this thread. To get people talking about it and creating awareness so if it does happen to us, we'll be able to perhaps hold back that instinct and possibly react better depending on the situation. But of course instincts are instincts, and our instincts will always be to avoid any collision. Just like the car that flipped turtle on the PIE last week. Was it a Jazz? I can't remember. If he had hit the car head on then it wouldn't have flipped. 

Ppl who ride bike usually has better situational awareness and better instinct.

Different cars, different situations will result in different reactions.