[adisag]

Returning to Gurgaon late this morning (Sunday), a freshly resurfaced MG road and no traffic; The tempting combination willed me to drive faster than I should have
Overtook a few trucks and slow moving cars cruising along at about 80 km/h. (Thats fast for the kind of surface MG road offers - even newly surfaced, its wavy and bouncy - dunno when we'll perfect how to make evenly smooth roads)
Was passing an 18 wheeler parked on the extreme right carriageway, while overtaking a slower moving car.

All of a sudden a canine dashed past from under the truck wheels. I was moving at about 80, and no space to the left or right....

Slammed on the brakes, but was way too close, hit the dog at about 15 km/h luckily from the left side, so he was flung away and out of the cars way. Stopped to check, a little blood, but saw the dog limping away into the bushes.

Hope the poor critter survives.

[arunsasi]

and you are lucky too that it did not result in a bad accident. the dog should survive if it limped away and since its India, there are no rules to be worried about. drive safe

[wanderluster]

I am glad the dog was ok.

With increasing urbanisation and the growing number of vehicles animals, dogs esp are the ones to suffer - no wonder the average life for a stray dog is only 2.5-3 years. When we moved to Gurgaon 12 yrs back, we saw a number of snakes squashed and other road kill on the highway and mg road. Its really sad for the animals.

[oss]

I always wondered, if a car at speeds of above 40kmph hits a dog, would the impact cause the to airbags pop out??

[manikjeet]

good to hear that the dog survived

[aparth]

There's no point in feeling bad about it. You did the best you could to save the dog. I just hope the dog survives.

[svsantosh]

Ok to feel bad for the dog. But had you hit it above 70-80, you will be feeling bad for the car.

Friend hit a canine at 120+ on GQ. Accent Petrol.
Dog, or, what ever was left of it was washed down next day.
35K paid to mechanic.

[vinaydas]

Originally Posted by oss

I always wondered, if a car at speeds of above 40kmph hits a dog, would the impact cause the to airbags pop out??

actually it is not supposed to.
saw it on one of the episodes of fifth gear where they were testing a Corsa, the test involved hitting a boar(synthetic obviously) this done to ensure the air bags don't deploy unnecessarily.

[oss]

Originally Posted by vinaydas

actually it is not supposed to.
saw it on one of the episodes of fifth gear where they were testing a Corsa, the test involved hitting a boar(synthetic obviously) this done to ensure the air bags don't deploy unnecessarily.

So then, at what speed and how heavy theobject should be for hte airbags to deploy?

[DieselAddikt]

I had a similar experience this saturday. In my case, I was traveling at 80kmph and a Kerala.S.R.T.C was right on my tail. There was no other vehicle in front of me. But suddenly this dog jumped the median and came on my way. Any hard braking would have had my car's rear smashed by the K.S.R.T.C. So I decided to brake slowly. Hit the dog at about 60kmph and came to a halt in a gradual manner. Luckily, saw the dog walking away. But my bumper got smashed on the right and is protruding out. Guess I will have to replace it now.

[SmartCat]

Airbags generally deploy when the car hits a deformable object at an impact speed of 50 kmph. If you hit a wall (non-deformable object), it will deploy at a lower speed.

Dogs will not damage the chassis (required for airbag activation) - just the bumper, even at high speed impact.

But if you hit an elephant at high speed..

[thedreamcatcher]

General rule in this case, though more difficult to put in practise is to hit and move on, and then when safe stop.

Whenever you see some animal suddenly darting across, dont hit the brakes hard and try to avoid it. Continue, you may hit whatever is in front, it may die, you may feel miserable, but a whole lot safer then you risking your life.

Imagine you apply brakes hard and some from behind ramming into you

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by thedreamcatcher

General rule in this case, though more difficult to put in practise is to hit and move on, and then when safe stop.

Whenever you see some animal suddenly darting across, dont hit the brakes hard and try to avoid it. Continue, you may hit whatever is in front, it may die, you may feel miserable, but a whole lot safer then you risking your life.

Imagine you apply brakes hard and some from behind ramming into you

This has always been controversial. What if that "animal" was your own pet? Would you still run over it? IMHO, Better to hit the brakes as smart as possible and avoid the animal.

BTW, your policy is what is followed by truck drivers.

[shankar.balan]

poor dog
thats all i can say.
i understand the difficulty when it is your life vs any other. instinct for self preservation takes over.
good that the circumstances were mitigated in this case to an extent.

[ikoneer]

Good that you and the dog are safe.

In a highway, sudden braking or swerving to left or right will put you in a great danger. Do what your mind says at that point of time and it will be the right decision.