Question...

Since I do try to stay aware and anticipate that the car WILL turn in front of me I am not afraid to give them a quick surprise with the air horn the moment I see their tires creep forward in the slightest bit.

 

Heres the thing.

It's easy for people to say I'd do this... I'd do that! I don't care what color of pom poms you wear or who's team you rah rah over.....


Point being.... You don't know what your going to do UNTIL you are in that position. I speak from experiece. And that is why you didn't see a response from me saying I'd do this... I'd do that!

The first deer I had run out in front of me..... I swerved. Not suppose to swerve. Instinct took over my thought process.

Back in 04 I had a similiar incident as to what the original poster described.... I swerved into the median. layed the truck over. Lost 50 tons of class 5 gravel. And still hit the ####### car.


Poop happens. And no matter how prepared you think you are. And no matter what you say or think you would do if ever put in that position.... You will never know exactly what you'd do or know exactly how unprepared you really are!

 

Ive had someone pull out in front of me pretty much just like the scenario the op described. Im sure most of us have. I reacted just like I answered in my previous post.

I do agree with you tho. Had it been on a 2 lane like you suggested i honestly dont know how I would react. As far as a deer, there is no predicting how someone would react in that situation.

 

There is no predicting how anyone is going to act in any situation. We are human & don't have to ability to know what others are thinking.

Like nootherids said.... He'd hit his air horn. Well.... How do you know that is going to stop them? How do you know it isn't going to spook them & while rapidly trying to hit the brake, they hit the accelerator instead?

 

And you got lucky. You had the left lane available so you can change lanes quickly.

Now what if you had a car beside you? Motorcycle? Another big truck? Would you have been able to make that rapid lane change?

 

It looked like the car was getting ready to pull out. Like I said I always try to look as far ahead as possible. When the car pulled out, I knew I was clear so I just had to hit the brakes and glance in the mirror to double check. Then let off the brake and made a lane change. If I wouldnt have been prepared I probly woulda hit the car. If a car was beside me there wouldnt have been much I could have done

 

I'm not following any "company mantra" here. And fortunately, I have not had to make that choice. Fact is, if I had absolutely no options other than those presented, I don't know exactly what I would do...but knowing what I know about myself and my previous training and experiences, I would try to minimize the impact as much as possible...aim for the trunk of the car, lay on the brake and pray the Grandmothers have my back. Human instinct is to preserve life. Animal instinct is to survive. Most likely, I would do everything I could to do both.


But you are right. You don't know until you're actually in it.

 

4 times you said, your watching and prepared, no doubt about it, by the time I approach our vehicle, ill be only going about 5-10 mph. or even stop before I get near, put flashers on, within 1-2 minutes its all over, now by stopping you avoided the ditch, the witch, the judge, the boss, and the POLICE. Was 1-2 minutes of time worth it?

 

Theres a flip side to that. What if your going to pull out and the 4 wheeler doing 55 coming at you has his turn signal on, do you just pull out? Seen this many times, the 4 wheeler forgot to turn off his turn signal, even seen big trucks do the same thing.