The Moral Ramifications of Swerving For An Animal

[NickInABox]

Can we take THAT discussion to this thread? Or are we going to start talking about the beautiful things we almost ran over in this one?

For the fleeting time we have to focus on the thread topic, I would actually stop for a small animal (anything ranging from a chipmunk to a doberman). If I get rear ended, it's the other guy's fault for being too close to my car.

 

[Trekker4747]

Can we take THAT discussion to this thread? Or are we going to start talking about the beautiful things we almost ran over in this one?

For the fleeting time we have to focus on the thread topic, I would actually stop for a small animal (anything ranging from a chipmunk to a doberman). If I get rear ended, it's the other guy's fault for being too close to my car.

Perhaps, but in the OP's thread they say they near hit a "tanker" in their attempt to not hit a rabbit.

Stopping short like that is dangerous.

Killing a small animal, even a domesticated one is preferable to killing yourself and others or even causing property damage to your car. It should, of course, be avoided if it can be done without putting yourself and others at risk but swerving to avoid an animal or slamming on ones brakes is dangerous and stupid.

 

[NickInABox]

Well, I mean if the road is of the generally empty variety, I do stop dead. But mostly if I see an animal, I slow down a little bit, perhaps honk, but not stop entirely. Just in case someone is behind me.

 

[Mallory]

I have absolutely no reservations about running down cute dimwitted animals who are stupid enough to find themselves in my path. I'm not going to risk injury to myself, my passengers or someone else on the road by recklessly swerving or slamming on the brakes to save a squirrel or something.

 

[NickInABox]

I have absolutely no reservations about running down cute dimwitted animals who are stupid enough to find themselves in my path. I'm not going to risk injury to myself, my passengers or someone else on the road by recklessly swerving or slamming on the brakes to save a squirrel or something.

I feel the same way about lemmings.

 

[NickInABox]

... or Frogger.

 

[T'Baio]

I think most animals deserve to live more than most humans.

 

[NickInABox]

I think most animals deserve to live more than most humans.

The PETA people asked me to pass along a hug to you.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, I mean if the road is of the generally empty variety, I do stop dead. But mostly if I see an animal, I slow down a little bit, perhaps honk, but not stop entirely. Just in case someone is behind me.

This is in contrast to your OP.

If the road is empty I'll make great attempt to stop hard and make a corrective course change (not sharply swerve), by present car has ABS so stopping hard isn't a safety/control risk.

But, overall, I'm not going out of my way to not strike a non-domesticated animal and my attempts only marginally go up for doemsticated ones. Sorry, my life, others' lives and property aren't worth the life of a rabbit.

 

[NickInABox]

Well, I mean if the road is of the generally empty variety, I do stop dead. But mostly if I see an animal, I slow down a little bit, perhaps honk, but not stop entirely. Just in case someone is behind me.

This is in contrast to your OP.

If the road is empty I'll make great attempt to stop hard and make a corrective course change (not sharply swerve), by present car has ABS so stopping hard isn't a safety/control risk.

But, overall, I'm not going out of my way to not strike a non-domesticated animal and my attempts only marginally go up for doemsticated ones. Sorry, my life, others' lives and property aren't worth the life of a rabbit.

What if it was some little girl's puppy? Who is her only friend in the world?

 

[Trekker4747]

What if it was some little girl's puppy? Who is her only friend in the world?

What if it was a man who pleased God that he was worthy of devine reincarnation into a beautiful dog? (Points to whomever gets that reference.)

Don't want it killed? Keep in on a leash/in the yard/in the house.

I'm not killing my self, others, damaging my vechile or raising my insurance premiums to spare the life of a dog if I can't avoid it.

 

[T'Baio]

I live in an area with a ton of squirrels, chipmunks, ducks and geese. I pay attention while I drive and unless they're bolting, I usually see them well in advance and slow down and drive carefully by them so I can safely avoid them if they do decide to bolt. The few times I have had something bolt out in front of me, I have been able to stop or swerve with little risk to anything around me. What kind of crappy cars are you guys driving that you can't swerve without risking smashing something up?

I hate when I see ducks in the middle of the road, dead. Have you ever seen how fast a duck walks? To run over one in the middle of the road, you gotta either not be paying attention or aiming for it...either way you're an asshole.

 

[NickInABox]

I live in an area with a ton of squirrels, chipmunks, ducks and geese. I pay attention while I drive and unless they're bolting, I usually see them well in advance and slow down and drive carefully by them so I can safely avoid them if they do decide to bolt. The few times I have had something bolt out in front of me, I have been able to stop or swerve with little risk to anything around me. What kind of crappy cars are you guys driving that you can't swerve without risking smashing something up?

I hate when I see ducks in the middle of the road, dead. Have you ever seen how fast a duck walks? To run over one in the middle of the road, you gotta either not be paying attention or aiming for it...either way you're an asshole.

I have no qualms about running over geese. I hate those fucking things.

 

[sidious618]

I swerve so I CAN hit them. Is that wrong?

 

[T'Baio]

I live in an area with a ton of squirrels, chipmunks, ducks and geese. I pay attention while I drive and unless they're bolting, I usually see them well in advance and slow down and drive carefully by them so I can safely avoid them if they do decide to bolt. The few times I have had something bolt out in front of me, I have been able to stop or swerve with little risk to anything around me. What kind of crappy cars are you guys driving that you can't swerve without risking smashing something up?

I hate when I see ducks in the middle of the road, dead. Have you ever seen how fast a duck walks? To run over one in the middle of the road, you gotta either not be paying attention or aiming for it...either way you're an asshole.

I have no qualms about running over geese. I hate those fucking things.

Well then, if true, I hope someone who hates you runs you down someday.

 

[Small White Car]

I mostly encounter animals in neighborhoods with low speed limits.

If avoiding an animal in that situation threatens your life, you're driving wrong.

Seriously, what the hell. Are you people going 60 mph out of your neighborhoods?

 

[Trekker4747]

It's a matter of risk vs. scale. Enocuntering an animal as you approach it at 30 miles an hour you've a couple seconds at most to make a decision. Depending on the conditions of that area that decision is to either move into on-coming traffic, move into a ditch/abudment/curb or mow down and animal.

I'v hit, and killed, all of one dog in my time driving. I was moving a long at 35 miles an hour in a 35 zone. The dog darted across the road at full speed I had literally milliseconds to make a decision. It was a narrow country road so swerving out of the road would've put in me a steep ditch would could've caused damage to my car. Swining "in" to the road would've gone into the dog's path. Breaking wouldn't of done any good as the distance between me and the dog was shorter than the breaking distance of the car.

So, sadly, it got hit. And I felt bad about it but it couldn't be avoided.

Sorry, I'm just not going to risk the mechanical viability of my car over a dog that should've been locked up per local leash laws. Certainly not going to risk it over a wild animal.

I'll stop/be evasive if I can but I'm not going to go out of my way to do it.

 

[RobertVA]

You car's mirrors aren't just for passing, parking and lane changing. Check them frequently during straight line driving so you can maintain an awareness of what vehicles are behind and beside you. While there will be times you will be boxed in, there is often room for a controlled swerve into another lane. As an added bonus, keeping track of the vehicles beside and behind you will sometimes provide a little warning when those drivers make a sudden move that you will need to avoid.

When my options are limited to damaging my car (and/or others) and hitting some small animal (wild or domestic) that's darted into the road I'm chalking it up to natural selection.

 

[Small White Car]

When my options are limited to damaging my car (and/or others) and hitting some small animal (wild or domestic) that's darted into the road I'm chalking it up to natural selection.

Exactly. I'm not going to hurt people or property to save an animal, but in my 11 years of driving I've hit 2 animals and avoided probably close to 100.

So with a hit ratio of 2/100 I find it ridiculous that people are acting like hitting the animal is their ONLY choice. Because in my experience, that's true about 2% of the time.

Hardly a "that's just what's going to happen" scenario. Folks here are acting like killing the animal happens to them 90% of the time. That just doesn't seem possible to me unless you want to kill the animals, which is kind of messed up.

 

[T'Baio]

I've been driving for 17 years and never hit a thing. I've also never even come close to damaging my car, another's car or hurting anyone while avoiding an animal. And I've avoided a lot of animals.

I guess most people just don't know how to drive. Can't say I'm surprised.