Is your instinct always to do an emergency stop?

GoldenShadow

Coming home tonight I swerved to go around something and, in hindsight, I feel like swerving is probably considered really dangerous and I should have done an emergency stop instead.

Now I think reasonably, I'm not sure if I could have stopped with an emergency stop. But I feel like I probably should have tried (and probably had someone go in the back of me!) than swerved.

Essentially, I noticed something in the road, and a few seconds later I had gone around it already.

What do you think, I feel as though my instinct should have been emergency stop :huh:

JustinR1979

You figured you wouldn't stop - by the time you've weighed it up you'd have hit it.

forgotmyname

Depends on the speed, You see the motorway clips where people swerve doing 70mph and it unsettles the car and the have a big accident.

GoldenShadow

I've been looking at stopping distances and based on that it seems like I should have been able to stop. I feel like my reactions are terrible. At 30mph you travel 44 feet in a second, and if it took me four seconds that would be 176 feet travelled.

How quickly are you meant to notice hazards? There was a hazard that I noticed and then, suddenly, another hazard developed in front of the hazard I was already looking at and it threw me a bit.

DUTR

GoldenShadow wrote: »

I've been looking at stopping distances and based on that it seems like I should have been able to stop. I feel like my reactions are terrible. At 30mph you travel 44 feet in a second, and if it took me four seconds that would be 176 feet travelled.

How quickly are you meant to notice hazards? There was a hazard that I noticed and then, suddenly, another hazard developed in front of the hazard I was already looking at and it threw me a bit.

Without malice, when last did you have an eye sight test?
Many forego the annual test and their sight diminishes slowly over time, evenbefore they are 30.

GoldenShadow

DUTR wrote: »

Without malice, when last did you have an eye sight test?
Many forego the annual test and their sight diminishes slowly over time, evenbefore they are 30.

Last summer some time. I do need contacts/glasses (prescription is -1.0) but I always wear them for driving etc. Only don't if I'm at home and don't intend to watch tv or walk the dogs, haha

Doesn't help that I am an anxious person. Damn my over analysing I do feel like it took me a long time to process what was happening and make a decision though...

agrinnall

If you'd done an emergency stop your ABS would have allowed you to swerve if necessary but at a lower speed.

GoldenShadow

agrinnall wrote: »

If you'd done an emergency stop your ABS would have allowed you to swerve if necessary but at a lower speed.

That's good to know, thanks. I daresay I should probably know that already. In hindsight I don't know why I didn't just brake as much as I could to start with. Long time thinking and processing but not acting :huh:

JustinR1979

forgotmyname wrote: »

Depends on the speed, You see the motorway clips where people swerve doing 70mph and it unsettles the car and the have a big accident.

I did it at 56mph with 18 tonnes, quick swerve right then left to get round the biggest deer I've ever seen. Had no choice, put main beam on and it was stood looking at me in middle of lane.

AdrianC

There is no universal formula. If something leaps out in front of you, you have a split-second to decide whether to swerve, stamp on the brakes, or brace for impact. What's coming towards you, what's behind you, what the road conditions are, and what speed you're doing all play a part in that decision.

Perhaps the most important thing, though, is what you think the hazard is. If it's a 5yo chasing a football or several hundred kilo of full-grown stag, with bloody great big antlers poised to go through your windscreen, evasive action is rather more of a priority than if it's just a rabbit or squirrel.

There are no right answers, but there might be a wrong one. If you swerve and lose control and hit a tree or oncoming truck, f'rinstance. Get to know how your car reacts, and be alert.

matttye

Depends on the circumstances.

I was driving along a dual carriageway in a right hand lane this morning when some complete idiot in the left lane indicated right and started to move over when I was almost alongside them. I instinctively swerved right towards the Central reservation rather than trying to stop and luckily avoided a collision.

My main issue is that I rarely use the horn when I probably should, including this time!