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Animals can kills you - even when you are snug and seemingly safe in your car. If your car hits a horse or cow at 100kmh, it's body is likely to collapse the passenger compartment like a pack of cards, killing you instantly. And if you swerve to miss that dog and smash into an on-coming car...? Beware of animals on the road. They are often unpredictable, particularly sheep. So, play safe when you see an animal on or near the road. |
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A natural reaction, when startled by an animal, is to swerve. Don’t do it! An early blast of the horn should frighten most animals off the road. If you swerve, the animal may run into your path and you will injure it anyway. Worse, steering around the animal tonto the other side of the road is risking a head-on crash. Swerving is a high risk business at any time and especially in wet weather, on a dirt road or at high speed. There is the additional danger that you may overcorrect and run off the road to the left. The faster you travel, the less you can afford to turn the steering wheel or turn it hard. The only exception to the "don't swerve" rule is if the animal is large like a horse, large deer, or cow. As we said before, if a car hits a large animal, the animal's body can stove in the passenger compartment and kill the occupants ... as well as the animal. So, if the large animal doesn't start running off the road at the blast of your horn, and there is no time to scrub off lots of speed, then steer around the back of the animal, since most animals will bolt headlong, rather than turning and running. Here are a few clues for drivers to look for when dealing with animals on or near the road. |
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Especially in spring, an animal running out onto the road may be followed by its young. So, when a sheep runs out onto the road, keep a wary eye out for lambs. The same applies for ducks, deer and, of course, humans... In some countries, you get more than just the animal's young following. You get the whole family on the road. In the USA, drivers can encounter millions of field mice or cane toads all over the road, not to mention wild turkeys. In India, it can be elephants or tigers. Imagine running into an elephant...!
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