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To swerve or not to swerve?


BabyBlade
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Something that bugs me a lot. To swerve or not to swerve to avoid hitting an animal if it suddenly darts out onto the road infront of you. In Singapore's context, usually a dog, cat, sambar deer, monkeys? What else? Our natural instinct would be to swerve right? I'm an animal lover and instinctively, I would as well. But is that really the right thing to do? There's so many factors to consider, road condition, any cars near me, will the car behind me be able to stop safely? But fact is we don't have the luxury of time to analyze. 

What are the consequence of swerving to avoid hitting an animal? You place your passengers at risk, most will react by swerving left or right, you may end up hitting a barrier, a tree, you may take a car or two along with you, or even a motorcycle with a pillion, you may end up causing a chain collision. Worst still, you may end up mounting the curb and taking a bystander on the pavement along with you (if it's on small roads).

What if you suddenly e-brake? You may cause a horrific rear collision if the car behind you is unable to react in time. 

What happens then if you hit the animal head on? You end up feeling guilty for killing an animal, you'll end up paying for your broken bumper/fender or other repairs. But hopefully the impact ends there.

Importantly what we should do is to maintain a proper following distance, be attentive on the road and react properly on the road. Unless, you are dead sure of the road and traffic condition around you (no cars, no bikes, no pedestrians), don't swerve. 

Not saying that animals lives ain't important but just saying don't jeopardize the lives of others while trying to save that dog, cat or squirrel.

And dog owners, please keep your pets leashed. No use crying if you don't leash your pets and then it ends up a road kill. The only fault of the driver then would be if he hits and then run.

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Turbocharged
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12 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

Something that bugs me a lot. To swerve or not to swerve to avoid hitting an animal if it suddenly darts out onto the road infront of you. In Singapore's context, usually a dog, cat, sambar deer, monkeys? What else? Our natural instinct would be to swerve right? I'm an animal lover and instinctively, I would as well. But is that really the right thing to do? There's so many factors to consider, road condition, any cars near me, will the car behind me be able to stop safely? But fact is we don't have the luxury of time to analyze. 

What are the consequence of swerving to avoid hitting an animal? You place your passengers at risk, most will react by swerving left or right, you may end up hitting a barrier, a tree, you may take a car or two along with you, or even a motorcycle with a pillion, you may end up causing a chain collision. Worst still, you may end up mounting the curb and taking a bystander on the pavement along with you (if it's on small roads). What if you suddenly e-brake? You may cause a horrific rear collision if the car behind you is unable to react in time. 

What happens then if you hit the animal head on? You end up feeling guilty for killing an animal, you'll end up paying for your broken bumper/fender or other repairs. But hopefully the impact ends there.

Importantly what we should do is to maintain a proper following distance, be attentive on the road and react properly on the road. Unless, you are dead sure of the road and traffic condition around you (no cars, no bikes, no pedestrians), don't swerve. 

Not saying that animals lives ain't important but just saying don't jeopardize the lives of others while trying to save that dog, cat or squirrel.

And dog owners, please keep your pets leashed. No use crying if you don't leash your pets and then it ends up a road kill. The only fault of the driver then would be if he hits and then run.

Personally, I think it is only safe to swerve if there is adequate allowance/buffer and without endangering others . Otherwise just stomp hard on the brake and hope for the best or to minimise or mitigate collision impact.

Anyway that rear car should also keep an adequate distance from the front vehicle. 

Edited by DOBIEMKZ
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35 minutes ago, inlinesix said:

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

If you're at Lorong Halus an area with a lot of stay dogs, then one should be approaching the area slow. Braking hard may cause serious accidents from happening too especially if there is a motorcycle following behind. 

Best is not to e-brake or swerve, unless you're certain it's safe to do so. 

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What the Volvo did in the video was to brake hard, rear car was either following too close or wasn't paying attention. Could have taken the motorcyclist too. Such a scenario where traffic is heavy I really don't recommend braking hard. Saved the dog's life though, but could have been worse for many others. 

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5 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

If you're at Lorong Halus an area with a lot of stay dogs, then one should be approaching the area slow. Braking hard may cause serious accidents from happening too especially if there is a motorcycle following behind. 

Best is not to e-brake or swerve, unless you're certain it's safe to do so. 

quite right.

if you know the traffic is busy and you dont know what you will hit when you drive erratically by swerving, you pay for the damages and life if someone suffers.

we get our license to operate a 2 to 3 ton machine not to harm other road users.

it is basic common sense not to drive erratically when other road users expect our behaviour to be predictable

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5 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

If you're at Lorong Halus an area with a lot of stay dogs, then one should be approaching the area slow. Braking hard may cause serious accidents from happening too especially if there is a motorcycle following behind. 

Best is not to e-brake or swerve, unless you're certain it's safe to do so. 

This stretch of road is going towards TPE or KPE.  Speed limit is 70km/h (I think).

Cannot go too slow la.

 

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6 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

What the Volvo did in the video was to brake hard, rear car was either following too close or wasn't paying attention. Could have taken the motorcyclist too. Such a scenario where traffic is heavy I really don't recommend braking hard. Saved the dog's life though, but could have been worse for many others. 

in this case the volvo hit from behind. he will claim the tivoli max. speed not very fast but maybe blame following distance too close. tivoli suay max

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Although i say its wrong to swerve.

i ownself also did that when similar incident happen to me.

natural instinct just kick in. i ebrake and swerve. lucky for me. i didnt  buang any 1....

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3 minutes ago, Beregond said:

Although i say its wrong to swerve.

i ownself also did that when similar incident happen to me.

natural instinct just kick in. i ebrake and swerve. lucky for me. i didnt  buang any 1....

8 years ago, I swerved to avoid hitting a dog that ran onto the road. Skidded a short distance with my bike. Unfortunately I also hit the dog but it ran away. Luckily for me though, a Comfort taxi managed to e-brake and didn't run over me. 

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Turbocharged

 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.

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6 hours ago, BabyBlade said:

8 years ago, I swerved to avoid hitting a dog that ran onto the road. Skidded a short distance with my bike. Unfortunately I also hit the dog but it ran away. Luckily for me though, a Comfort taxi managed to e-brake and didn't run over me. 

bb would become a real angel then.. lol

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1 minute 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.

you are right.. think of survival. who would not swerve if it is a tree, elephant or a cliff?

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7 hours ago, BabyBlade said:

What the Volvo did in the video was to brake hard, rear car was either following too close or wasn't paying attention. Could have taken the motorcyclist too. Such a scenario where traffic is heavy I really don't recommend braking hard. Saved the dog's life though, but could have been worse for many others. 

This case was OK.... 

No life lost and bumper can be repaired.

It's really hard to provide a hard and fast rule. 

Keep situational awareness high while driving....... 

With good SA, then if sudden event happens, just decide if lost of a dog life is better than the lost of a motorcyclist.... 

Your question is same as

"Will you save your mum or you wife." type of question.... 😅

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