Video that demonstrates results of not swerving to avoid a stopped car in lane

[happycamperbrat]

I googled Greyhound bus crash images. The photos are devastating! The question here is to swerve or not to swerve. The safest procedure told here is to drive straight in a line and brake. In fact on a recent trip I had a deer run in front of me in the bus and when it got to the center of the bus it turned and was trying to run away from my bus, but going in the same direction and only about 3 feet in front of my windshield. I hit my breaks and was able to bring the bus to a controlled stop without hitting the deer or seriously injurying anyone (my daughter however fell over with some boxes falling on her).

In photo after photo I see the front end of the buses WIPED out where the driver's seat is. This would seem to suggest to me that if traveling without family, possibly the best course of action would sometimes be to lay the bus on it's side rather then plow through something.

Many big rigs have HUGE plates of steel on the front as well as a bunch of metal and the engine in front before an obstruction reaches the driver, we however have little or nothing........

[kyle4501]

My opinion- making major course alterations at speed often changes your status from a participant to a spectator.
Minor course corrections at speed will allow you to prolong your active role as a continued participant in the event.

So, YES, you can steer & maintain control - but you shouldn't swerve.

If I see that I'm going to hit something crossing in front of me, I'll 'try' to just miss the trailing edge (this will give them more time to clear my path & if not, it will transfer less energy as a sudden stop & more as a spin).

If I'm in the bus, I'm going to try to drift to the right to minimize the compaction of the driver's seat.


All that is assuming leaving a safe following distance & not over driving my line of sight didn't work as well as planned.      


Hmmm, maybe, we should be pushing our toad instead of pulling it . . . .  

[Jeremy]

The question of what to do when confronting animals is a difficult one; a fox did quite a bit of damage to the front of my Lexus a couple of years ago, and I decided afterwards that the collision had happened because both I and the fox had reacted badly. I was traveling 70 - 75mph around a long, curving link road between two motorways. I was the only car on the wide, two-lane road, but the curve meant that I could only see maybe 200 yards or so of road in front of me - but that was still plenty for me to make a 'carefully considered' reaction when the fox ran out in front of me. The fox was running across the road from left to right, and I had sufficient time to decide not to slow down at all, but just make a minor course-correction so that I past well behind the fox, who would by that time be most of the way across the road.

The fox hadn't seen me at this point, and when he did he panicked and tried to return the way he came - result, one dead fox and one damaged car - in fact I had to stop the car on the motorway shoulder and tie the front end back together with string before I could continue.

So, if I had 'over-reacted' by braking hard, or 'under-reacted' by doing nothing the fox would still be around today; it was the fact that I reacted in a controlled way, coupled with the unpredictable actions of the other party (which could equally well have been a child or a stupid driver), which led to the collision.

Jeremy

[kyle4501]

To me, it ain't "over reacting" until you loose control or drive into an unknown area (like changing lanes without knowing what is or isn't there).

Hard braking isn't over reacting unless it causes loss of control.

Around here in the country mountains (twisty curvy roads), if you do the posted speed limit, you are driving right at your vision limits, so you better stay prepared. There are all kinds of animals on the road - from cats & dogs, to cows or bears. Not to mention the occasional cyclist!


Driving is full of unpredictable events, we need to base our actions accordingly & hedge our bets whenever we can.