The Moral Ramifications of Swerving For An Animal

[Caliburn24]

I'm in the Army, so I'm rather jaded by some of the experiences I have had here in the service.

20+ soldiers in my unit are on the way back from a field exercise riding in an LMTV(truck) the driver sees a cow in the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting the cow, but still clips it in the process. The truck itself rolls over. Every soldier in that truck was injured, by the grace of God none died, but several were chaptered out of the Army due to the injuries they sustained, and will be living on disability for the rest of their days. Several of the less injured soldiers have chronic back and shoulder problems to this day due to that accident. Oh, and the cow? It was too badly injured to recover, and was put down.

Second incident, my first combat mission in Iraq. I'm the lead humvee gunner in the convoy, we're doing a supply run to and from FOB Warhorse. Coming out the gate of Warhorse for the return trip home we see a mangy dog in the middle of the road. My driver swerves to avoid the dog. He successful misses the dog, but then the second humvee in our convoy calls us on the radio and tells us we just hit a pair of puppies when we swerved. Yeah, that dog had had her puppies sitting behind some weeds on the side of the road and we squashed them flat.

So based on those two incidents I am completely opposed to swerving and avoiding animals.

 

[NickInABox]

God bless you for your service, sir.


Despite this thread, I say that without sarcasm.

 

[DBR]

I know I told this story, but I once ran over a bird which I mistook for a clump of muddy snow like which falls off the underneath of your car. I felt awful for weeks--no, months! Poor little thing was just trying to get warm or something. It wasn't until the last second that I saw it move and realized it wasn't a clump of snow, then 'uump'. I still feel awful. Whenever I look in the mirror I see an evil me and he whispers "Muuuurderaarrhh."

 

[Pingfah]

I swerve for small animals, but i'm on a motorbike. Stupid fuckers usually just go exactly the same way I am and get run over anyway.

 

[Garak]

No way am I stopping or swerving for an animal if it isn't safe. I'm surprised there are people that do, to tell you the truth.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

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.

What if you're driving a Rabbit and swerve to avoid a person?

 

[SeerSGB]

If I can safely avoid the animal, I'll avoid the animal. If it's to dangerous (be it weather conditions, traffic, what have you), sorry Peter Cottontail is going to the carrot patch in the sky. That said, I do drive slower around where we live cause we've got a lot of deer coming out of the wood areas and down into the farm fields to eat, so-- at night especially-- it's pretty risky to drive even the speed limit around here cause of the risk of one of them bolting out into the road.

 

[FordSVT]

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.

I'm assuming you don't do a lot of rural driving at night. I've hit a couple of raccoons and a porcupine; there's not much you can do when a small black object appears in the middle of the road at night in an 80 kph zone, you hit it almost before you even register it's there. Animals do unpredictable things as well: one of the raccoons jumped into the way after I had swerved to the left to avoid it.

 

[SeerSGB]

I freaking hate squirrels when I'm driving for two reasons:

-- Going through a residential district and two jumps out of a tree, hits my windshield, rolls on to the hood of the car, sits up and looks at me like it's my fault his stupid self just got smacked by a car. The thing rode on the hood of the car all the way to the store, and hoped off when I parked.

-- Going down on of the craptacular 2 lane blacktops that is the only way in and out of where we live, bad weather, pouring rain, I hear a bang in the back of the truck. Stop and look in the bed: broke tree branch and a Squirrel just sitting there cleaning himself. The thing would not get out of the truck no matter how much I shooed at it; just ran from one end of the bed to the other.

 

[Alpha Romeo]

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?

How would you know that?

 

[SeerSGB]

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

Only if hang out the window and scream at passerbys "Bonus points for old ladies and girl scouts!"

 

[Garak]

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.

What if you're driving a Rabbit and swerve to avoid a person?

How come you aren't back in TNZ yet?

 

[sidious618]

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

Only if hang out the window and scream at passerbys "Bonus points for old ladies and girl scouts!"

Deal.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

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.

What if you're driving a Rabbit and swerve to avoid a person?

How come you aren't back in TNZ yet?

Cause equal application of the rules doesn't apply.

 

[Daedalus12]

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?

Sometimes but I have never hit an animal or been in a close call. The fact I've lived in Atlanta most of the time after I turned 16 helps. No deer, no squirrels on the road, no raccoons, no porcupine, no geese, etc. In fact I haven't seen a road kill in years until I got up here in Virginia where I saw a half dozen in the first week.

 

[Mallory]

The fact I've lived in Atlanta most of the time after I turned 16 helps. No deer, no squirrels on the road, no raccoons, no porcupine, no geese, etc. In fact I haven't seen a road kill in years until I got up here in Virginia where I saw a half dozen in the first week.

People in Virginia get their food in supermarkets.

 

[Finn]

This reminds me of a couple of years ago. I was driving down a rural road when I thought I hit something big. I could see a blurry figure then a thunk. I looked behind the car as I drove away. There was nothing.

Months passed and it was time for me to get new brakes. Guess swhat was sticking to the underside of the car near the front right axle when I looked under there? Some kind of carcass including hardened hide and bone, exactly where I saw that thing went under the car before the thunk.

 

[Daedalus12]

The fact I've lived in Atlanta most of the time after I turned 16 helps. No deer, no squirrels on the road, no raccoons, no porcupine, no geese, etc. In fact I haven't seen a road kill in years until I got up here in Virginia where I saw a half dozen in the first week.

People in Virginia get their food in supermarkets.

Are you sure man? In the first week I got here I went to a biker bar near the Hampton Roads. I started a pissing match when I told a scraggy looking drunk biker with a confederate tattoo that Robert E. Lee totally sucks cock. He tried to punch me but he tripped over the my leg. I got out of there with rest of my NASA buddies quickly before things escalated. The guy certainly was talking about eating road kills.

Also you know both squiggy and cooleddie do live in this state.

 

[SeerSGB]

This reminds me of a couple of years ago. I was driving down a rural road when I thought I hit something big. I could see a blurry figure then a thunk. I looked behind the car as I drove away. There was nothing.

Months passed and it was time for me to get new brakes. Guess swhat was sticking to the underside of the car near the front right axle when I looked under there? Some kind of carcass including hardened hide and bone, exactly where I saw that thing went under the car before the thunk.

Dude, how did you not notice the funk?

That's about as bad as my grandfather cranking the car, heard a load scream from the engine. Popped the hood and found a stray cat...well cat burger at that point had crawled up into the fan cowling the night before. Big block 70s model Chevy V8, versus cat, guess what wins. Ever since, I always pop the hood of a car that's been sitting over night on a really cold night or more than a day.

 

[Finn]

1. It smelled at the job I had at the time.
2. I had a dog who did a lot in there.

Sorry but you asked.