Suppose you're driving on the interestate at night...

[Inthacup]

...and you see a guy standing in your lane. For the sake of argument, suppose he's standing just past the crest in a hill. By the time you see him, you have just enough time to swerve to the right(possibly onto the shoulder, possibly farther right than that) or plow right through him. If you swerve, there's a moderate chance that you could lose control of the car causing serious damage or death to you.

In the heat of the moment, do you think instinct would cause you to swerve anyway? Do you think you should swerve? Assume that if you hit him, you won't get injured, but he'll die.

Cup

[-Skeme-]

You won't have enough time to consider harming yourself due to swerving out of the way. Instinct is to swerve. That's it.

[InchoateHand]

Let us see now...a mild chance of death versus a certain murder. Let me think. Can I get back to you on that? Sure the man is a fool for standing there, but who knows what happened to him...besides, most people swerve by instinct--that is the only way a squirrel can kill you.

[gorgeous]

If he's fat like an adult deer, there's a chance of him smashing through your windshield and killing you if you decide to run him over. My instinct would tell me to brake real hard (I did this recently and got into a car accident) but my instinct is wrong pretty often. In fact, it's wrong so often that I don't really know how I'm a winning poker player. Okay, bye.

[TStoneMBD]

truthfully, i think my instinct would be to protect myself first, trying to swerve out of the way without putting myself at danger. of course, if its impossible to avoid hitting him without falling off the road id probably plow through him. however, my first thought while in the moment would probably be "omg is this manslaughter?" because im not quite sure. this might cause me to swerve off the road.

either way, i would almost certainly slam the breaks like the idiot i am.

shows how egocentric i am /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Alobar]

why cant we swerve to the left??


Youve got a split second to react, EVERYONE swerves, its just instinct, unless there is a cliff to ure right or something and then I think the more disciplined could manage to not swerve, but even then, I bet most people still swerve.

I've got like 8 airbags in my vehicle, so id swerve even if I had time ot think about it. Unless I knew there was a really large chance I could die, then I would just plow him over, hes in the middle of the road in the middle of the night, Im not gunna die because hes an effing retard.

[man]

depends on how close the mexican border is.

[nothumb]

Funny, I've had this one happen to me too. One night at work I had to pick a kid up at the Albany bus station at like midnight. We were driving past the Lebanon Valley Speedway on the way back and for some reason there were two people in the street near the entry. Nobody else around, nothing open within miles of the place.

I didn't even brake - no time. Just cut the wheel over to the shoulder of US 20 at about 65, fishtailed around the guy, brought it back into the road and kept going.

Had the same thing happen with a deer on Interstate 64 outside of Charlottesville, VA. Just as you described - right over the crest of a mountain, going about 80, he's standing there - and there's guardrail on both sides a mile in each direction. Crazy. Tires were really screaming on that one.

NT

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
Tires were really screaming on that one.

NT

[/ QUOTE ]

details man! You hit the deer? You hit the guardrail??

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
details man! You hit the deer? You hit the guardrail??

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, hit nothing. Swerved in front of a pickup I had just passed, the fishtail knocked me down to about 50, dropped it into 4th and pushed it right back up to 80. I was too tired to be freaked out.

NT

[Inthacup]

a mild chance of death versus a certain murder.

Yes, but it is a mild chance of YOUR death vs. a certain murder of a random guy. Would it make a difference if you were alone in the car? with friends? with your wife and kids?

who knows what happened to him

does it matter? honest question. I'm just playing devils advocate.

most people swerve by instinct--that is the only way a squirrel can kill you.

Right, but why do you think this is? Is it an affection for animals? Is it because they haven't really thought about what you should do? Do you think you can train yourself to not swerve?

[InchoateHand]

1.
In all honesty, I would probably swerve quicker if other people were in the car, because my instinct says "obstacle" and I swerve, even if I don't need to.

2.
No, it doesn't really matter, I was just trying to pre-empt responses that followed the flawed line of "he's a retard so its okay."

3.
I'm sure people could train themselves not to swerve, but not me. I don't train well.

[ClaytonN]

I do not swerve. I hit brakes and let dumbass decide whether or not he wants to live.

[jacki]

[ QUOTE ]
I do not swerve. I hit brakes and let dumbass decide whether or not he wants to live.

[/ QUOTE ]

ditto.

Swerving at high speeds is bad news.

[kerssens]

One night I was driving home from work late at night...it was foggy. I could swear that on the shoulder there was a guy dressed like death with a cloak and axe looking thing (can't remember what its called).

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

http://justfakeplastictrees.free.fr/img/vdrabbit9.jpg
Wait for it... (http://netsoc.ucd.ie/%7Ecoma/other%20-%20nothing/Unkle%20-%20Rabbit%20In%20Your%20Headlights.mpg)

[Eurotrash]

Should we assume that if we hit him, he'll die for good? Or is he going to return after we dispose of his corpse and slash the throats of all of my friends and then mine? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119345)

[brassnuts]

I have that UNKLE album, but the Rabbit in your Headlights track is scratched and won't play. /images/graemlins/mad.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/mad.gif

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
http://justfakeplastictrees.free.fr/img/vdrabbit9.jpg
Wait for it... (http://netsoc.ucd.ie/%7Ecoma/other%20-%20nothing/Unkle%20-%20Rabbit%20In%20Your%20Headlights.mpg)

[/ QUOTE ]

That's such a sweet video (and album).

[brassnuts]

That video is pretty cool. Never seen it before.

Something I've always wondered about that song. At the very end, is the sound you hear from the movie Contact?