[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

I thought the dog will cross the road but much to my surprise, it jumped back and started running straight to my car. Impact is imminent, and I did not react except lifting the foot off the accelerator.

I heard a loud bang in the middle section, and I could still hear the dog rolling underneath for 2 to 3 seconds. Since the IRVM was in dimmer position and dark outside, I couldn’t see what happened to the dog, but I felt sorry for the dog, entire event happened within 5 seconds.

You did the right thing. As a policy do not swerve for a small animal especially on a fast road. You'll do more damage to yourself and others with that. Sad about the dog but better a dog than 4 humans and 2 cars. Dog lovers don't get mad please.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

...
...
Time to reflect

I was keep thinking, what should I have done differently to prevent this incident? though I had few seconds to react, but my mind went blank. May be this was the right decision considering the fast-moving vehicles around, but I couldn’t convince myself.

Not sure if vehicles equipped with ADAS would have made a difference?

Well, still couldn’t believe it happened and the unexpected expenses so far and I’m aware of eye watering service bills ahead. However, thanked God for getting us home with no other safety and security issues.

Drive safe - Vino

Hindsight will always be genius, ain't it?!

All's well that ends well, so don't be too harsh a critique on yourself!

I had something similar on a 6 lane highway about 7 or 8 years ago - a multiaxle Volvo hogging the fast lane on a straight, forcing me to overtake in the middle lane. I usually keep to the middle lane, so I continue. Should have been at 120 KMPH, about 3am.

When my bonnet is parallel to the front wheel of the Volvo, I realize he's slowing/ braking (he should be at 100 or so too). I lift off the A-pedal, quick check on the ORVMS (all clear, no traffic). And then I see it - a doggie taking a suicidal stroll past the median, onto the Volvo's path (left lane) about 100 meter ahead of us (we are now almost side by side). I'm now on my brakes - not slammed, gradually taking it, do not want to spin into the Volvo!

Split second later, doggie is in my path continuing the suicidal stroll. Volvo is clear, he starts to move. But I'm less than 10 meter from the dog, Volvo won't clear it for me to cut into the right lane, so I move to left lane, still braking nice and gradual, dropped a couple of gears. Doggie still strolling... The inevitable happened at about 40 KMPH, almost at the kerb when the right edge of the car slapped the doggie. He/ she howled and fell a few feet away, was a pretty hefty cannine, with some blood around the mouth. Stood up and ran off.

I lost my foglamp, bumper corner, and the wiper-washer tank that's behind the fog-lamp. After confirming there's no coolant (water from the wiper washer scared me off), continued my bruised journey.

Maybe I could have honked the crap out of the Volvo to move him from the fast lane. Or braked a little harder and stuck to the same lane for the animal to stroll past.

But, hindsight is genius. The reaction time we have will be less than 4 to 5 seconds - and if you've watched Sully, the human needs it's own processing bandwidth, and 5 seconds is a few seconds less!

All things considered, I'd say our instincts served us right - and all's well that ends well

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

Here comes the horror. As I crossed Chennasamudram Toll Plaza, Walajapet, I gradually picked up pace and maintained speed between 90 and 100Kmph, it’s a six-lane highway and I was on the middle lane. I saw a dog running towards the median, at that point there were few vehicles behind on the right lane and could see bright head lights on the IRVM, so sure few more vehicles behind.

I thought the dog will cross the road but much to my surprise, it jumped back and started running straight to my car. Impact is imminent, and I did not react except lifting the foot off the accelerator.



Drive safe - Vino

See that's the root cause of all your miseries, right above. The moment you spotted an animal, a human or a vehicle cross the road, you should have let go of your accelerator and started braking. By the time you chose to react, your speed would have been below 50 kmph and when the dog ran towards your car, you could have easily swerved away. That gradual braking would have alerted other motorists and they top would have slowed down. Whenever you drive you must assume that the rest of the world are idiots and you need to account for their stupidity.

[warp_10]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

Time to reflect

I was keep thinking, what should I have done differently to prevent this incident? though I had few seconds to react, but my mind went blank. May be this was the right decision considering the fast-moving vehicles around, but I couldn’t convince myself.

Not sure if vehicles equipped with ADAS would have made a difference?

Well, still couldn’t believe it happened and the unexpected expenses so far and I’m aware of eye watering service bills ahead. However, thanked God for getting us home with no other safety and security issues.

Drive safe - Vino

Thanks for the post. Makes me write about my incident that happened 1 year back. A very similar incident happened in the very exact same place before I crossed walajapet toll (as I was coming from Bangalore to Chennai). It was about 2PM and the roads around that stretch is usually empty. I was clocking 100 kmph on my Brezza zdi+ and I was in the middle lane. The left lane had a van which was clocking same or higher speed. I was just behind his blind spot - my front wheels were just behind his rear at that moment (and so I could not see what lied ahead for him).

All of a sudden he started breaking and slowed. I did the same but was not enough. In a second, I saw a stray dog hit my front bumper left to center side, but my wheels did not run over it (never felt any bump post that, must have been thrown side since I saw it on the left side rear view). The dog must have run in from the open sides and speedily crossed the first lane and slowed (since it has crossed the advancing van, and could not have seen or expected another vehicle in the next lane). I was in a state of shock and was almost about to break down. It took me a few kms of driving before I could even calm myself.

I slowed much further after that, put the emergency indicators and stopped in the side, calmed myself to an extent. The front bumper and plates was damaged, opened the hood and saw that the inside was not damaged and did not see any warning lights pop up. Drove slowly all the way to Chennai and fixed them in garage (luckily nothing inside was damaged).

It took me a couple of weeks to come to terms with what had happened (or probably still haven't). Even today the thought of it makes me shiver. I am grateful that my family was safe during the incident. I have always made fun of Maruti's safety (as a sheet metal car), but definitely I believe it did decently well in this occurrence.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

...what happened to the dog...
...
Not sure if vehicles equipped with ADAS would have made a difference?

Dog strikes on our highways are fairly common, especially after sundown. Street dogs become more active after sundown, and tend to be confused by cars and bright headlights. To quote myself...

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The quick-footed confused animal: Sheep, goats, pigs and dogs are frequently confused while crossing the road, and can suddenly turn back, or simply run on ahead. The only way to prevent a collision is to drive slowly in an area where these animals are known to stray on to the road without notice, and stop for them (if you can). I could not, but then this was on a 6-lane expressway, late in the night, and I wasn't expecting a stray dog to run out from my right at that hour...

https://youtu.be/iUOi7ilXI3I

This was not the only incident of dog strike for me - had one more incident on the highway many years ago when I couldn't avoid hitting a dog, but the damage was just a slightly bent bumper, because I was driving a Scorpio. That time, it was early dawn, still not enough daylight.

ADAS won't make a difference, since the ADAS radar is not designed to detect small animals, not can it respond quickly enough to sudden close-quarters intrusions into the car's path.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Dog strikes on our highways are fairly common, especially after sundown. Street dogs become more active after sundown, and tend to be confused by cars and bright headlights. To quote myself...

https://Youtu.be/iUOi7ilXI3I

…. into the car's path.

The earlier undivided highways posed dangers from the sides. One would be rewarded with a safe drive by tending towards the middle of the road, with due respect to oncoming traffic.
Today’s divided highways pose more dangers from the median. The plants on the median attract grazing cows, and also make small animals and most humans invisible until they decide to make a sudden appearance. Stick to the left lane as much as possible!

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

Time to reflect

I was keep thinking, what should I have done differently to prevent this incident?

Some times some things are just beyond our control.

The same exact thing happened to me too, at same speeds

https://youtu.be/L5kKnyU8mSM

I knew there wasn't anything to be done to avert the hit. I did not want to get rear ended by panic braking or swerve into other direction losing the control of the car.

Luckily my altroz did not have any damages whatsoever.

[glovins2004]

Thanks all for your valuable inputs and comments. I should have tried slowing down gradually after seeing the dog, but things happened so fast, however slowing down a bit might have minimized the damage, agreed.

Sorry to hear that some you had similar experience but thank God nothing major except minor vehicle damage reported.

As one of you have mentioned, I’m still trying to come to terms and bit paranoid thinking about the next highway trip, maybe it takes time to fadeaway. However, I’ll take extra caution while crossing this stretch again, or better avoid late evening and night drives as much as possible.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

As one of you have mentioned, I’m still trying to come to terms and bit paranoid thinking about the next highway trip, maybe it takes time to fadeaway. However, I’ll take extra caution while crossing this stretch again, or better avoid late evening and night drives as much as possible.

This can happen on any road, not just highway. I have had the unfortunate experience of hitting a stray dog running/cutting across a city (arterial) road at night while on a bike. Luckily I survived the hit without falling down as I was at (<40kmph) low speeds, but later realized it was one of those uncontrollable incidents that can not be planned for.

[Vipin Kumar]

Around a month ago, I suddenly saw a huge long python before me on the road moving. It was 11 in the night and I had little reflex time. My car was at 90 kmph and we were three men inside. All that I could do was to lift my foot off the A pedal and the vehicle ran over it. All the four wheels. Since it was dark and was not possible to go in reverse, don't know what was it like... Long ago, on another occasion, I had seen a viper and could stop till it crossed the road.

[RaviK]

Destination I must reach, come hell or high water..

https://www.facebook.com/reel/608508...?s=yWDuG2&fs=e

Credit: respective owner

[kvsneela]

2 lessons I had learnt in driving without damage to me or vehicle in my 20 years of driving experience. 1. Animals 2. Blindspot
Animals: First time I had experience with animals was in Chennai ,GST road, Tambaram when I was returning from my brother's house to Kodambakkam in a Nano. 2/3 cows were running towards the median to cross but there was no opening in that place. Those cows suddenly turned back after seeing no opening only after reaching the median. I was driving in the first lane , had to turn left to avoid the cows. Fortunately it was around 6.30 a.m. so there was no traffic and everybody was safe. ( I have seen cow hit by bus on Chennai Bangalore highway). We cannot deduce how animals will react in emergency. Cows, dogs,cats,goats and chicken each will react in different way. Better to be alert always especially when animals are around( even in case if tractors and 2wheelers).
Blindspot: Our first vehicle was a Scooty in 1999 in Mumbai. Once I was riding behind a bus which stopped suddenly. I thought it was a bus stop and tried to overtake from right. But actually bus stopped because of an auto crossing from a side road which I saw only after crossing the bus. Seeing the auto I applied brakes which made the scooter skid. Fortunately no other vehicles were around and I escaped from few bruises. (even if it was an animal i would have applied brakes due to instinct).
But if the choice is given between human lives( that too ours and family included) and that animal , the choice should be always the first. And that too if it happened in few seconds which was out of our control .

[sagaranjos]

I don't see any one saying the obvious.
The easiest way to avoid accidents is to follow the speed limits.

[Everlearner]

Originally Posted by sagaranjos

I don't see any one saying the obvious.
The easiest way to avoid accidents is to follow the speed limits.

Accidents can and do happen within approved speed limits as well. I agree there are many over speeding morons on the road, but most of the accidents are by default attributed to over speeding by media and authorities as it is the easiest they can come up with and they don't need to provide any data to back up.

[vjbox]

Sorry to learn the ordeal but hey you all walked out ok. That's what I have learnt to say when any such incidents happen.

Like someone mentioned, Dog Strikes are common in our highways and most of us usually witness one or two dead ones lying by the sides in most of our trips. I have had my fair share too but it happened in the city where I was accelerating quickly and the poor fellow came quickly out of a Hotel compound (shooed away by the Security ). I had an eye on him but he swerved onto my path, and I had to inevitably hit him hard. He was hit at the left side lower bumper and was tossed out. Felt really bad for killing him. My son who was on board was very anxious and I had to console him that the dog was ok and was being taken to the hospital. Had I swerved, it could have been resulted in a bad accident. In such scenarios we have got to protect ourselves first.