[sagaranjos]

Originally Posted by Everlearner

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.

True. But in all the cases mentioned here the common thread is that they were speeding at/over the legal limit. There's a legal limit and then there is your personal limit.

I generally believe that it takes 2 mistakes for an accident to happen. By going at a comfortable pace, you increase your probability of compensating for other's mistakes.

[redcruiser]

Originally Posted by bordeaux

Thank God you didn't slam those brakes. It would have been a totally different level of mess especially because that dog was visible only to you and not the vehicles tailing you. In my opinion, you did the right thing. The only other option was to dangerously swerve around that dog but that could have pushed you into a fishtail spin, leading to much worse outcome. Also, really good to read that you received help from a random stranger passing by

Shouldn't a Sedan like Vento make sudden adjustments and still hold its line.

[corneliu]

Great inputs on safety & defensive strategy when facing imminent animal hits on the road. A sad and very common reality on our highways.

My two cents:
1) Avoid night driving as far as possible (poor visibility + animals are more active)
2) Moment you see an animal ahead, assume that it wants to get in your way and get the foot off the pedal. Don't try to speed on, assuming that impact won't be made.

This may be a bit off-topic, but one common theme I'm noticing with all the incidents of animal hits being shared here, is the immediate flight response of the driver, who is unable to stop, look back, & evaluate the damage he has inflicted upon the unfortunate animal. While the desire to get away from this ugly incident is totally understandable, and the guilt and remorse is palpable, I think it is only humane and responsible to also stop to evaluate how badly the poor creature has been injured, and either arrange for some sort of hospital treatment for it (very difficult in India), or put it out of it's misery.

I confess, I have run over a squirrel which suddenly came in my way, and it died immediately. May the Lord forgive us these incidents, and keep all of us all from running over any more of these poor creatures.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by RaviK

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

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

Credit: respective owner

He looks like a filmy stuntman who has enormous expertise, mastery and aptitude in this field and has risked his life for a 100 times. This could be his 101st real life stunt !

[nettooran]

Originally Posted by 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.

Well, I got a video for something similar. These snakes are very flexible I guess. It just slithered off like nothing happened.

https://youtu.be/Si80S3ELLgo

[sharkashwa]

Originally Posted by sagaranjos

True. But in all the cases mentioned here the common thread is that they were speeding at/over the legal limit. There's a legal limit and then there is your personal limit.

I generally believe that it takes 2 mistakes for an accident to happen. By going at a comfortable pace, you increase your probability of compensating for other's mistakes.

I would respectfully disagree on the speed limit front.
The OP in this case was probably within the speed limit of 100kmph as mandated by a recent revision to the speed limits on NHs by the Supreme Court.
More so by the time impact happened as he was off the throttle.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/63806412.cms

Another point that needs to be considered here much more than driving within the speed limit is the average speed of the traffic flow itself.
From what I understand in the original post, there was steady traffic in the ORVMs meaning that the traffic behind was also at the same speed.
A personal speed below the average speed of traffic is much more dangerous than sticking to speed limits in my personal experience.

Anyways, relieved that the OP was able to get his family back home safely and the Vento will be back on the road.
As far as getting over the incident mentally might take more time but will happen eventually.

[sunikkat]

Newly opened stretches of Bangalore - Mysore road is definitely becoming an accident magnet. Yesterday while returning to Bangalore, witnessed 3 toppled vehicles - all of them in 3 separate incidents and could not see any other vehicle involved in the accident. 1 Jeep Compass, 1 Seltos and 1 big trailer.
Since the roads are great, looks like people are forgetting theirs and vehicles breakage points.

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by corneliu

This may be a bit off-topic, but one common theme I'm noticing with all the incidents of animal hits being shared here, is the immediate flight response of the driver, who is unable to stop, look back, & evaluate the damage he has inflicted upon the unfortunate animal.

Yeah. Move the carcass off the road. Least one can do. Put a gunny bag or even a newspaper and move the dead animal to the side of the road. Of course if it's safe to do so.

I've seen dead dogs and cats being run over till they're a pile of blood and guts. Grim.

Accidents are accidents but what we do after is up to us.

[Guite]

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.

Does the dog know the speed limit? Would an animal decide not to do an about turn in the middle of the road or run across the road in the last moment if a car was under the speed limit for that stretch of road? Why do most people in general and government officials (transport dept, traffic police, et al) in particular almost always conclude that accidents are due to high speed driving? Beats me. We might just as well trundle along our highways and expressways at no more than 50 kmph.

Eons back I used to commute by bike on the roads around Shillong. It's hilly road, not much straight stretch, two lanes: one lane each way, without median. Reaching 50 kmph was barely possible because of the twists and turns.

One fine day, on a straight stretch of about 100m, a dog suddenly decided to cross the road infront of me. If I had panic braked or swerved it would have been dangerous for me. In any case there was no time to react. The dog and my bike foot peg met. I continued on with a sore foot. If I were faster i would still be safe because my momentum is important at that point to maintain my bike's straight line motion.

[amrit_bareta]

Originally Posted by nettooran

Well, I got a video for something similar. These snakes are very flexible I guess. It just slithered off like nothing happened.

https://Youtu.be/Si80S3ELLgo

Brother, I don't know who was driving the car , but you did a great job by saving someone's life. May God bless the car driver.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Everlearner

Accidents can and do happen within approved speed limits as well.

Absolutely. Accidents happen at all speeds. Might be safe to say, though, that the higher the speed the higher the risk; it's certainly true to say that the higher the speed the worse the consequences are likely to be.

Originally Posted by sagaranjos

True. But in all the cases mentioned here the common thread is that they were speeding at/over the legal limit. There's a legal limit and then there is your personal limit.

It is a common misconception that the speed limit is actually the speed at which one should drive on that road. Wrong, wrong. wrong. And I learned that one the hard way.

Originally Posted by redcruiser

Shouldn't a Sedan like Vento make sudden adjustments and still hold its line.

Good point. An emergency stop should be possible at any speed, at least in a straight line, shouldn't it? Mind you, stopping distances, even in a car equipped with abbreviations, are much further than most people think.

[redcruiser]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Good point. An emergency stop should be possible at any speed, at least in a straight line, shouldn't it? Mind you, stopping distances, even in a car equipped with abbreviations, are much further than most people think.

I was referring to sudden swerve to either sides at high speed in a sedan.

[akg7091]

Originally Posted by glovins2004

I saw a dog running towards the median

This brought back a memory of an accident I had way back in ~2006. I was driving my indica at ~30kmph in a residential neighbourhood when a dog sitting on the side of the road decided to jump right in front of me. I had maybe 1-2 secs to react and couldn't brake or do anything else to avoid the accident. The front wheels went over the tail / rear legs of the dog by the time I stopped and I was afraid it had died but to my relief it got out from under the car after a few seconds and limped to the side. Not sure if it had a fracture / survived later but glad it was alive last I saw it

[ronford]

Even I have hit a dog on a state highway. It was jumping on a single place on the side of the road and I had seen it from a distance but did not expect it to jump. As soon as I was around 30 meters from it, it jump right in the middle of the road and I couldn't do anything even being at around 50-60 kmph. Hit my radiator and broke one headlight mount bracket.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by nettooran

Well, I got a video for something similar. These snakes are very flexible I guess. It just slithered off like nothing happened.

Flexible yes, but there are no snakes without bones. It is probably hurt badly, hope it recovers, I had heard of such injuries from a snake catcher who visited me. Excerpt from search engine results.

Often when people run over a snake, they will look in the rearview mirror and see the snake slithering away, apparently unhurt. This leads to a common misconception that snakes can easily survive being hit by a car. However, the truth is that snakes often do not display symptoms of injury or disease right away. The snake may have been more seriously hurt than it will show at first.

A snake’s body is basically one long spine made of flexibly connected vertebrae. There can be as many as 400 vertebrae in a snake’s long tail-like body. Even if there was no explicit damage to the bones themselves, it is very easy for a car or bike tire to separate the snake’s spinal column. A snake with dislocated vertebrae will soon lose its ability to move without pain. This makes the snake less able to hunt its prey and also less able to escape a predator. Even if the snake does not die immediately from being run over, it will likely die later because of its injuries.

https://www.snakesforpets.com/can-a-...eing-run-over/