When driving, how do you decide whether to perform an emergency stop ?

Associate
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4 Mar 2004
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I refer to those instances where a small animal crosses in front of your vehicle - assume from a hedge, so no warning at all.

I base it pretty much purely on threat to my vehicle/myself. That is a function of size of animal, my speed, road conditions and what is behind me/how close.

Had a rabbit hop in front of my car on motorway at 70mph - didn't even slow, far too dangerous.

The actual prompt for this was a driver (Honda civic) performing an emergency stop from 60 to 0 for a baby pheasant (~10 inches tall) on a country road - I considered that reckless, even though while following behind, I was able to stop without issue.

I drive a Renault Clio.
 
Soldato
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Depends. What is it I'm possibly going to hit, how big is it, is it going to wreck my car, is there a car behind me.

Also instinct, if something makes me jump I tend to at least have my foot on the brake before I've decided what to do anyway.

If it was a cow or something and it was 20 feet away I'd probably just stand on the brakes, shut my eyes, hold my breath and plow into it before I'd had any time to make any sort of decision. I'm a rubbish driver.
 
Soldato
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Was it being chased by the pheasant plucker or the pheasant plucker's son...

I thought it was pheasant pluckers mate? as rhymes with pheasunt pluckers late.

Anyway on topic: Size of animal pretty much, though I know that I automatically lift off but when it is only a rabbit or something I go back to the throttle. Never had something big get in the way, though if it is something really big like an adult deer or something I wouldn't care who was behind me, I would be trying to stop as they do a lot of damage.
 
Soldato
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Near my work a pair of young women were driving along, hit a deer that entered the road, veered into another car (dual carriageway) and crashed. The result was that the car caught fire and both women died. :( So, in summary, breaking is good but won't always help.
 
Associate
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I'd probably do my best to stop whatever it was (I just don't feel right killing anything), depending on the distance of the vehicle behind, although i'd more than likely hit the brakes out of reaction anyway.
 
Associate
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I've only ever had to emergency stop once or twice, and it was for animals. I didn't even register what they were at the time, it's just instinct when something rolls out of a hedge right in-front of you to hit the brakes.

It's scary how slow your reaction times are compared to speed though, a mudflap came off a lorry I was behind on the dual-carriageway before and although I saw it fly off it had hit and cracked my windscreen before my foot made it to the brake pedal.
 
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Soldato
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I'd try not to for small animals, a dog yes, I think you have to try by law, just be aware of others and leave yourself room to stop in an emergency as if you hit the person in front of you that has performed an emergency stop it will be your fault.
 
Associate
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Peterborough
Depends...

A dog ran out infront of me once and i had no time to react at all. It was walking down the pavement (not on a lead) then decided to bolt across the road, a normal 30mph road. I heard a thud, saw it roll over a few times then ran across the road again, but made it this time. And disappeared.

Guess it had one heck of a headache the following day. Shook me up a little though.
 
Soldato
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First accident I had when 17 was avoiding a badger (to be fair I was also going too fast for the conditions), wrote off my parent's car.

Haven't had a whole lot of mercy since then, but I will where possible back up and finish something off if I've just clipped it.
 
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