[SS-Traveller]

Our roads are riddled with not just potholes and sudden obstructions, but animals of many sizes.

https://youtu.be/HSaQ6-qTTi4

The presence of animals on corridors where vehicles travel at high speed is not uncommon in many parts of the world. Kangaroo strikes in Australia, and moose & deer strikes in North America and Canada are common. These are wild animals that frequent uninhabited areas. However, in India, the greater risk is that of hitting a domesticated animal, such as a cow or buffalo, goat, sheep, or a dog - both on the highways, as well as inside our cities.

The video below shows just a few of my personal encounters with animals on the road in the capital city of India (and the NCR region), over just a few weeks before writing this:

https://youtu.be/K88OAiNpP70

So what are the animals you are likely to collide with, and what are the strategies to follow, to avoid crashing into animals?

[SS-Traveller]

Recognize the types of animals

The slow-moving animal that keeps moving forward relentlessly: Cows and buffaloes will often just walk ahead at a leisurely pace, unmindful of a 2-tonne mass of steel headed straight at them. There are only two options to avoid a collision - brake and stop before you hit them, or swerve and pass behind them. More discussion about cattle on our roads can be found here (Cattle - The real menace on Indian highways).

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

The intelligent animal: Monkeys and cats are very aware of the danger in their surroundings, and are usually quick enough to get out of harm's way (see the second video in the previous post). I am yet to see a dead monkey or cat on the road that has been run over by a car.

The angry, attacking (sometimes wild) animal: Bulls (especially those that are armed with huge horns) are known to attack cars, even when you've completely stopped. You can get swiped by those horns when passing too close to a bull - leave enough space as you pass the animal. Wild animals such as elephants and nilgai frequently charge at cars even when they are a safe distance away. Here's a video of a nilgai that headbutted my car, that too in the heart of south Delhi!

https://youtu.be/Pzs2PomiGjg

The very small animal (or bird) that will generally not damage your car: When I was undergoing low risk driver training, I braked for a plump little kookaburra on a narrow highway doing 60 kmph - and got reprimanded. You don't brake for a 'burra, I was sternly told. The risk of someone rear-ending you, is higher than any damage by that little thing. From then on, I don't brake for crows or chickens or snakes on the road.

[SS-Traveller]

The ABCD strategy: Be Alert to the road & vehicle ahead, be ready to Brake hard, keep adequate Crash avoidance space (CAS), Drive away as fast as you can

Be alert: Look out for that brake light coming on suddenly. If you are thinking the driver ahead is an idiot for braking on an empty stretch when he should be overtaking, you might be mistaken - he's probably spotted something that is hidden from your line of sight. As in the case of the tractor swerving to the left (in the second video in the first post), look out for those telltale warning signs.

Be ready to brake hard: Often, an animal can intrude into your lane without notice, and braking hard as well as steering away from the animal can be the difference between a crash and a near-miss.

Keep adequate CAS: Do not follow the vehicle ahead too closely. CAS of 2-3 seconds is the least you need to maintain, to give you a cushion of space in case something intrudes into the front of your car.

Drive away: Rarely, the only option to avoid a collision with a charging animal is to drive away as fast as you can. This may well be in reverse! Watch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srx7RSQToUo

[SS-Traveller]

Analysis of some crashes with animals

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

Animal involved: Goat - quick-footed confused animal.
What happened: Bike hit goat while overtaking another bike at high speed.
Could the crash be avoided? Riding too fast, without enough CAS at the time of overtaking. Chances of avoiding a collision in this situation are low. In an area known to have stray goats, sheep and dogs on the road (i.e. riding / driving through narrow village roads with habitation and agricultural fields on both sides), it is necessary to drive slow and overtake carefully.

___________________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxXzGGOGxA8

Relevant post

Animal involved: Cow - slow-moving animal that keeps moving forward relentlessly.
What happened: 2 cars overtaking a third car when a cow strayed into the right lane. The first overtaking car swerved to avoid the cow, while the second car crashed into the cow.
Could the crash be avoided? Yes. The CAS was insufficient (less than 1 second, even at the beginning of the video), with the gap closing as the cars started overtaking. At 0:10, the XUV500 starts to swerve left sharply to avoid the cow in its path, and the impact with the cow happens less than 2 seconds after that. Had the CAS been 3 seconds or more (assuming a speed of 80 kmph at that time) and if the driver was alert to the possibility of animals on the road, the Innova could have stopped (there was no way to swerve behind the cow and pass).

___________________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwVqpp0bRsc

Relevant thread (Maruti S-Cross hits buffalo | Horrible experience with Maruti workshop Narayani Motors, Bhubaneswar)

Animal involved: Herd of buffaloes - slow-moving animals that keep moving forward relentlessly.
What happened: Car overtaking another car when a herd of buffaloes strayed into the right lane from bushes on the median.
Could the crash be avoided? Perhaps yes. At 0:11, there are stray cows seen on the right of the road, and the driver moved to the centre of the carriageway. Keeping to the centre and driving a little more slowly is the safest option, with overtaking manoeuvres to be only performed when there is a clear line of sight over the central verge, without overgrown bushes. 15 seconds after noticing the stray cows, the car crashes (at 0:36).

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Rohan265]

Interesting thread. Animal crashes are rarely discussed.
You have covered the major points, especially about staying alert. Defensive driving is extremely helpful too.
I would like to add some learnings through experience:


1. Always wear the seat belt/helmet. Crashing into an animal may not be in our control. But, preventing injuries is in our control. Impacts with Cows, buffaloes, Nilgais are similar to crashing into another car. Also, crashes with animals having longer legs are similar in nature to crashes with trucks. The car's airbags may not deploy and the animal might also fall through the windshield.

2. Never try to swerve around animals. Depending on the vehicle speed, you are highly likely to lose control and yaw/rollover. I have seen too many rollovers caused because drivers tried to avoid animals by steering/swerving. Animal behaviours are also highly unpredictable. Slowing down is the best option.

3. For herd animals, if we see one we can expect others to be close by.

If an animal is hit, especially a wild animal, try to contact authorities and get help for the animal.

The best way to avoid animal crashes is through infrastructure interventions. I believe the new highways coming up have considered this.

Overall, animal crashes leading to severe injuries are rare and are mostly preventable. Its the biped we need to worry about more.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Rohan265

2. Never try to swerve around animals. Depending on the vehicle speed, you are highly likely to lose control and yaw/rollover.

Sometimes, swerving may be the best option. Despite braking hard, it may not be possible to completely avoid a collision, in which case, it is best to swerve and pass behind larger animals such as cows and buffaloes (which never take a U-turn unexpectedly).

The outcome of such a swerving manoeuvre will depend on your vehicle's dynamics. A large SUV is likely to topple (especially those that would fail a Moose test), but a sedan or hatchback equipped with ABS, EBD & ESC would safely take such a manoeuvre if the road and tyres are good. OTOH, the impact of a buffalo with a small hatchback would be far more catastrophic for the occupants, compared to those in a large SUV, which might even remain in driveable condition after the collision.

[Samba]

Quite an exhaustive write up, I do not have anything to add. Rated 5*.

Still sharing my two cents-

Whenever I go through a village or am nearing a village animals like cows, goats, ducks, hens are more likely to cross.

Driving on highways with paddy fields on both sides? It's more prone to cow crossing.

On guarded expressways like Yamuna Expressway or Agra - Lucknow expressway, cows cannot cross the fence, but animals like dogs or nilgais can still come in.

While going through national parks, we must follow the mentioned speed limits such as 20-30 km/hr. Driving through national parks means we are intruding into their territory.

The only animal which can surprise us anywhere are dogs.

What I generally do is-

Slowdown while crossing villages.
Stick to the middle lane while doing highs speed, so I can have a good peripheral vision of both sides.
Avoid sticking to the right lane where the divider is filled with bushes.
Keep an eye on the maneuvers of the car going in front of me.

There is a prejudice, if a cat crosses the road, we should stop the car and then resume the journey. Cat is just another animal, stopping the car on a road adds the risk and for that if an accident occurs, the poor cat gets the blame.

[nibedk]

Touchwood till date never had an car accident of any sort which hurt anyone. Had a couple of rear ends and the damage was to the other vehicle. I had a couple of near misses though which could have turned catastrophic. Both the times I slept on the steering .

I was dead tired both times and for some reason didn't stop to get fresh. First one the car jumped up the median but speeds were low and the rear tires could not jump over. The car dropped back to the road with a loud thud. No one around for 500 meters in front or back. It was in 2016 at the peak of summers in Vizag town near the cricket stadium. Someone up there had blessed me. I was with family and had the car been at higher speeds it would have jumped over the median and result could have been the worst possible.

Second time I was on ORR (HYD) and had slept for a good 5-10 secs before my father sitting on the rear seat realized something wrong and hit me hard on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and was just 15-20 meters from the median (it was all green as HYD ORR has good green vegetation on the median). This happened just a couple of months after the first one.

Since then I have diligently followed the below

• Set speed limit @ 120. I barely touch these speeds anymore. Cant remember driving more than 100 for a long time now. I have actually started enjoying my drives more and less stressful. Days of 140-150+ are done now.
• Never take the wheel if I am tired or had drinks. My wife takes over the driving duties.
• Slowdown near villages and intersections.
• Swerve if required - quite a few times and a dynamically sorted car (Punto) helps here.
• Last option is stand on the brakes or brake as hard as possible. There have been quite a few instances where co passengers have commented that I have braked harder than required. Besides Punto's brake are one of the best in the segment.
• Avoid driving near the median as much as possible.
• In case I am driving any other car than my own I keep the speeds under check till I am well aware of the car's dynamic capabilities.

In the last 6 years I cant remember having any heart in the mouth moments. And I hope it stays that way for rest of the lives. I have been twice lucky and don't want to be in a situation where I run out of my luck.

[locusjag]

3 rules I follow:
1) Bovines - these will keep serenely sailing at an even pace in the direction that their nose is pointed at. If you see one sailing across the lanes ahead of you, keep calm, decelerate gently and aim for where its tail is at. It will have sailed past by the time you reach the hallowed point where its tail was. If you aim for its nose, be prepared to strike it and shell out money to some random dairy farmer and to the mechanic for bodywork.
2) Dogs and Poultry - these will change their mind randomly and themselves do not know why they're crossing the road. Slow down a bit and observe and decide what's the best course of action.
3) Deer - these are very much like #2 above; but these might further jump up and execute a kung fu kick, break the windshield and thrash around at your face with their inserted feet. If you spot running deer, God help you!

[Akshay6988]

Most of the animal hits are avoidable if one scans road ahead and drives in a speed limit. I know there are some unexceptional circumstances where we can't do anything, few of such incidents are documented on our forum as well. I've observed that bovines and larger animals tend to move forward when crossing roads, so try and overtake them from behind. With dogs and cats, they usually get frightened and some freeze on the spot or run back to the side of the road. Always reduce speed after scanning rear and sides of your vehicle. Being a cat and a dog parent, breaks my heart whenever I see a fallen angel on the roads

[vnabhi]

Lovely thread. I thank SS-traveller for highlighting this frequent hazard on our highways.

Despite my driving cars for 32 years (and another 20 years prior sitting on the front passenger seat of my dad and grandpa's cars and pretending to be driving the car), I've had 2 dog hits on highways.

The first was between Vizag and Srikakulam on my M800 way back in 1997. The NH5 was undivided then, and i was doing around 75 on the NH5 that was on an elevated embankment (like railway tracks), with the normal trees on either side. Suddenly a pack of dogs popped up from the left and were moving to the other side, fighting with one another. I braked hard (the M800 has crappy brakes), and released the pedal when i saw the pack had already crossed my trajectory. But one one them moved back (perhaps to avoid a bite from another in the pack), and I crashed into it at around 40 kmph with the front right side of the car. I heard a cracking sound, but did not stop the car for another 100 meters, in order to avoid getting attacked by the pack. I could also see the dog getting up and scampering across in my ORVM. When I checked, i found a broken headlamp--it was of those sealed Jap beams that came with the initial lot of cars by MSIL. As there was no other damage, I continued my trip, and luckily got a replacement at Berhampur, Orissa.

The second one was on my Figo in 2014, on a trip from Hyderabad to Nizamabad to attend a colleague's wedding. I was in the middle lane of NH7 doing around 90 kmph. A single dog (more of a grown puppy) suddenly darted across from the median at great speed--as if it was being chased. I braked and did not try to veer, but as the reaction time was less than a second, ended up going over it. I could see the small creature rolling several times in my mirrors. As before, I stopped after around 200 meters and 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. Got the number plate changed and the bumper fix .

I guess I was lucky both times. Had the animal been a grown up dog in the 2nd incident, I'd have surely had more damage.

[jai_asnani98]

You know those things which you never really knew you needed, but in reality you did. This is one of those topics you have brought up. I think that beyond passing tests to get a DL, all drivers need to be educated on so many more subjects. Sure, everything ain't in the book, but even the slightest chance that out of 10 questions in the question bank, if you can remember ONE question, you might save yourself from the pleasure of scoring a duckJokes apart, if any of the readers, carefully go through this post, it may help them in the 'fight or flight' response. So, kudos!

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Recognize the types of animals

The intelligent animal: Monkeys and cats are very aware of the danger in their surroundings, and are usually quick enough to get out of harm's way (see the second video in the previous post). I am yet to see a dead monkey or cat on the road that has been run over by a car.

Indeed! Maybe we can learn a thing or two from our primate cousins since another common sighting on highways are people sprinting across.

Based on my experience so far, I once encountered a dead(?) animal (a deer maybe) lying on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. I was at a speed of 100km/hr. I recall had just a moment to decide what to do in that fight or flight moment. I drove over it. Yes. Felt like something was piercing through my heart out of guilt. The underbody went through a major shudder but in retrospect I felt it was the right decision. Had checked my RVMs and spotted cars on either side plus behind me. They were pretty close to me and had I swerved or depressed the brake, not sure what the outcome would have been.

[saket77]

Very good thread. Will be helpful for a lot of readers.

Dogs, goats are mostly confused and they can turn back at any time, ruining all your calculations. So, I’m extra careful when I expect or see such animals on road. Best is to slow down and let them cross or turn.
On the other hand, cows/buffaloes are slow movers but they mostly keep walking. So, if I feel that I can’t brake in time for them, I prefer to cross them from rear. Chances of them turning back is remote; hence I apply this strategy but always make sure that the traffic is clear in case you need to change lanes.

If I’m driving at higher speed, I usually don’t brake for birds. I think I may have killed at least one about 7 years back on NH2; all I could see in the rear view mirror were feathers flying around. Felt bad for a while but then ‘greatest good for the largest number’ is a rule that should be applied in these situations.

Thanks SS-traveller for starting this thread.
Regards.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Thanks for compiling these videos in one thread.

My two rules:

1. If I spot an animal, or a shepherd with animals or any other hazard like an accident etc. far ahead of me, I push my hazard lights button and start slowing down. In Hyderabad, we have lush green road dividers on the ORR and there are gardeners working at many stretches with reflector cones installed. The moment I spot them, I start hazard lights and start reducing speed and move in the lane which takes me away from these cones. This way, the car behind me spots the cones also and can take an informed decision.
In the XUV, S-Cross and cow accident above, if I was driving the XUV, I will put on the hazard lights and slow down on seeing the cows grazing near the divider. I will move away from the divider such that the driver behind me can spot the animal also.

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.