[BhaskarG]

A very important topic indeed, and an well prepared and researched thread.

All the important points have been discussed in the earlier posts. So I shall not repeat. I'd like to add from my side:

1. Drive just below your comfortable speed. I was a fast driver before. Then I have also faced incidents that could have been avoided if my speed was less. Nowadays, prefer to drive at a speed where car is in my control. I take 20 percent extra time to reach, who cares?

2. Lose tailgaters: Whenever I see the car behind me driving too close to me, I usually slow down and leet the guy pass. This helps in avoiding rear ending in animal or other situations.

3. Be extra careful while overtaking, or being overtaken. Note that in the videos posted above by OP, the car which was overtaking was the victim. It can be other way round, too.

4. If possible, keep a clear line of vision for at least 3 seconds ahead of you. Many drivers have the habit of keeping their gaze on the car that they are following, not on the actual road/surroundings ahead. Do not follow the car ahead blindly.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

2. I will not kill a human for a dog. Let me explain: If I am driving fast on a busy highway, and a dog jumps into my path, I will not slam the brakes very hard. I will reduce my speed, try to reduce the impact, but will not stop my car completely and will eventually run over the dog to save the human following my car. Thankfully, this has never happened but I am always prepared for it. It appears cruel, but it is the dog's mistake, and I cannot endanger the car following me for this. It may well be possible that the car following me has two generations travelling together. But, if it is a big animal, I will slam the brakes, and pray that the car behind does the same in time, otherwise I will myself get killed.

Rightly said. Keeping a balance between front impact and imminent rear impact is important.

[adisan]

With dogs, two issues i have noticed:

Absentmindedly wandering onto the road, especially just before dawn. Becomes difficult to spot with not enough light around, particularly if coming from behind bushes on a median.

Suddenly darting across, either to attack or on being chased. They come at very high speeds and need only a fraction of a second to get in front of traffic, leaving very little reaction time.

With baby monkeys, it seems to me that they are not able to correctly estimate the time to move away in the face of traffic.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

... found only a broken number plate and a slight dent in the bumper and the AC condenser. Luckily there was no fluid leakage. So I continued to the wedding and returned with my colleagues the same night.

Did the dent / bend in the condenser lead to any problems with the cooling systems?

[SR-71]

Every time I am on the road, I worry my 28 year accident free streak will come to an end on account of 2 reasons

• A large animal suddenly darting into the road, specially in power lighting conditions or blind spots
• A vehicle flipping into my lane from the opposite side

There is simply no reaction time for either scenario and accident is inevitable. And in neither case the fault is yours, there is nothing you could have done. And god forbid should that animal be a holy cow, you are in for a world of pain for being anti national

[sauravpat]

I would like to put forth a couple of incidents my father has had in the last 5 years involving a major animal.

Incident 1: (2015) In a densely forested ghat:

Car: VW Jetta.

A fully grown hyena ran onto the road out of nowhere post sunset when the car was upwards of 60kmph. On the narrow single lane ghat, there was no question of swerving or doing a dangerous manoeuvre. My father had to go through and hit the hyena face on. It was thrown around 10 feet back. It just laid on the ground stunned for 20 seconds before getting up and running back into the forest. Damage to the car: A lot of hyena fur stuck onto the bumper and a little but of broken plastic trim on the bumper and a broken number plate.

Incident 2: (2022) Rural highway in Karnataka:

Car: Audi A4

While driving, my father noticed two young bulls fighting on the road in the opposite lane. He immediately slowed down and kept a distance of 15m from the fight in case it moves. Again, single lane and no divider road. The car was also very new so he was really cautious.

Down this opposite lane comes a huge truck at high speed. He sees the bull fight late and slams the horn while braking. Both the bulls panicked seeing the huge truck hurtling towards them and blindly took off. One of the bulls came and ran into the side of our new A4. One dent on the door and two dents on the fender on the driver side.

Damage to car: Dents on the driver side door and fender


Conclusion:

My father was extremely lucky that both times he was sitting in full sized German sedans, both built like a tank. A 700kg bull running into the car didn't even move it. I cannot imagine what would have happened had it been a small hatchback.

I am also of the opinion that in such cases on Indian roads you need to put your safety first and injure the animal if it comes to that. There is no other alternative. Both times it could have been a dangerous incident and we have to let it go saying

What can we do? We live in India after all.

It is entirely possible that we will be subjected to such an accident through no fault of our own and even after driving defensively. The hard part is stomaching the damage to our prized possessions and wallets after incidents like these.

[pannags]

One of my uncles, who has been driving for over five decades, told me 25 years ago that when you sight a slow moving animal on the road, and if it is not immediately possible to slow down completely, always try to cross the animal at the tail end.

This is one of the best pieces of advice on driving I ever got.

[narayans80]

• Stick to arterial roads.
• Keep your eyes peeled.
• If you drive at night. Get better headlights.
• Drive slow. 80s, 90s or 100 at most.
• Left or middle lane works best. Bulk of the cattle emerge out of the divider.
• Keep an eye out for vehicles stopping, waiting on right lane where there are no signals. Prepare to slow down. Had one close shave near Tambaram where a buffalo emerged right in front as I switched to middle lane from right lane.
• Don't worry about being rear ended.
• In case of tuskers stay clear and wait. Especially if you are on a 2-wheeler.
• Dogs are agile and they got out of the way. I have had some hard braking and evasive maneuvers. We've had a radiator damage in early 90s when my dad was driving.
• With cattle, best strategy is to slow down or completely stop and let them through. Trying to pull evasive maneuvers causes more damage than good.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

It may well be possible that the car following me has two generations travelling together. But, if it is a big animal, I will slam the brakes, and pray that the car behind does the same in time, otherwise I will myself get killed.

Putting the hazards on should be a practice. Whenever I see an obstacle on the road, I turn the hazards on while I slow down. My XUV300 also turns on hazards automatically on hard braking - which is great. If anything, it'll grab the attention of the trailing vehicle and they may either choose to switch lanes or slow down.

Originally Posted by BhaskarG

2. Lose tailgaters: Whenever I see the car behind me driving too close to me, I usually slow down and leet the guy pass. This helps in avoiding rear ending in animal or other situations.

A very VERY useful advice! Always lose tailgaters. It brings no good and losing them makes a win-win for both parties involved.

[Sran]

So if anyone of you guys are having an idea to check what happens if a heavy 2 wheeler hits a pig, don't do it. I have already experimented it in college. It is like hitting a huge rock.

[V.Narayan]

Thank you SS-Traveller for a most useful thread with excellent videos to illustrate the risk and for all those crisp suggestions. Rated a well deserved 5 stars.

Too many of us Indians drive and walk as if the law of karma and the laws of physics do not apply to us till one day wham they sadly do. The suggestion of maintaining a 3 second gap between yourself and the vehicle ahead is most sensible. Regardless of the speed of a moving transportation device be it a car or a train or a plane it is the time available to react that sets the tone for safety. Even commercial airplanes flying in the sky maintain what is roughly a 20 to 22 second gap (5000 metres) between each other in the horizontal plane. Any gap less than 3 seconds is simply not enough for a normal drivers reaction time.

In my now 43 years of driving I tend to keep this gap in city or highway - usually more on a highway. Also I have rarely if ever reached a destination significantly faster by driving at over 80 kmph thanks to the fact that even on a really good highway run you'll have bio-breaks, tea-breaks etc that more than eat up any vroom-vroom you might have indulged in. Another thing I do is to watch 500 to 800 metres ahead as much as the road permits. Those cows that emerge suddenly from the divider hedges were crossing the other side of the road 5 or 10 seconds back when we you are 500 to 600 metres away. Not always, but often enough especially in a high seated car like an SUV you can spot that movement several seconds in advance.

As for small animals it is me or the animal. Sorry PETA, the animal loses the vote. End of story. One reason monkeys and cats don't usually get killed is due to the fact that their eyes are set in front of the face enabling them to accurately judge distance and speed just like humans.

Originally Posted by BhaskarG

2. Lose tailgaters: Whenever I see the car behind me driving too close to me, I usually slow down and let the guy pass. This helps in avoiding rear ending in animal or other situations.

A most sensible and valuable advice. A tailgater by definition means he is (a) stupid to the norms of safety (b) has a large ego, my assumption (c) either has no idea what happens in a collision or does not own the car and couldn't careless.

[Kosfactor]

Speed!

Animals are usually not comfortable on the road - some exceptions like Elephants are there but generally if there is traffic they avoid getting onto the road. Every time I have had close calls with them I was in their territory and carrying too much speed.

The 'Brake Inspectors' as they are called is very apt.

[enj0y_ride]

Interesting thread.

Any expert opinion on how to deal with Elephants or Bisons when travelling through forest ( usually if they are on the road for hours ). Will keeping the lights on or honking drive them away?

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by enj0y_ride

Interesting thread.

Any expert opinion on how to deal with Elephants or Bisons when travelling through forest ( usually if they are on the road for hours ). Will keeping the lights on or honking drive them away?

You do not have to deal with them, they will deal with you :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbb4apXjqKg

^
As far as I hear these two car owners ignored forest department`s warning and ventured into the area.

Anything other than Elephant - stay wherever you are quietly. Elephant in a group will mind its own business usually and may give you a mock chase so just stay put.

The rowdy ones like that - you`ve got to shift to reverse and go as far away as you can.

[vishchan]

Have had couple of instances -
In 2012, Blr-Mysore road between Mandya and Srirangapatna a dog crossed the road on to the median when there was a safe distance between my car and the dog. I was on the right lane. I continued on, but there was a Volvo which zipped in opposite direction while the dog was at the median. This scared the dog and it ran back in panic to the right lane which I was in. It was too late to avoid, I braked hard, and the car behind me swerved left to avoid bumping into me. Luckily the dog got up and was able to walk, ofcourse we don't know how much pain it suffered.

Another instance from last year in Panna National Park between Panna and Khajuraho, there was a traffic jam and we passed the jam and every vehicle was try to accelerate and get back to higher speeds. The Bolero infront of him hit a langur which was crossing the road. Langur fell down, and the Bolero passed over it. Because I was close to the Bolero I enountered the Langur on the ground, I was able to ensure my wheels didn't run over it. But the Bolero hit was fatal enough for the langur.

After some of these experiences and having seen many animals being hit on road, I have stopped crossing 100 unless there is a very clear view. Also I try to drive in left/middle lane unless I'm overtaking.

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

I am yet to see a dead monkey or cat on the road that has been run over by a car.

Well, curiosity did kill a cat once, trying to do an Aamir Khan from Ghulam with my car, probably it decided at the last moment that it should take the dare. At night, similar to the dog strike video above, but the impact was more on the front corner. I saw the cat when it was too late. It fell on the ditch beside the road. Nothing happened to the car though. Somewhere near Pandharpur, MH.

That is the only unfortunate incident I have had yet.

Originally Posted by locusjag

1) Bovines - these will keep serenely sailing at an even pace in the direction that their nose is pointed at.

The bikers who remove the bricks from the median to make a makeshift gap, put their front wheels first on the road, AND THEN see if a vehicle is coming on the fast lane, also fall in the same category I think.

While at it, I remember a funny incident in GJ (near Maliya, NH27 I think). A cow sat on slow lane of the carriageway, with its head hanging on the fast lane. It kept enough space for a car to pass through, but not a truck. So a trucker honked. The cow did not get up, but just flicked its head to the side, thereby now leaving enough space for the truck to just squeeze through. The trucker was so furious that he kept on honking even after crossing the animal.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=D0yUrPmlZHI

Looking at the way those guys were riding, they were always going to crash into something. The goat just happened to be that something here.

No sympathy at all for these idiots and the faceplant into the asphalt fully deserved!