Quote:
Originally Posted by wagonman76
Thank you DCB. I for one have experienced many of these situations and had either person been going faster, there would have been a serious accident. Maybe not down south, but up here, car-deer collisions are an everyday thing, even on the freeway. Ive lost track of all the times Ive had to come to a dead stop or swerve to miss one, and had I been going faster Id have cremed it. Anybody who thinks that going faster helps you avoid things better, watch any of those overhead views of police chases when people are going very fast though town and end up crashing into things because the car just cant make a normal corner that is designed for town speeds.
|
you are going to have to elaborate on your deer encounters... for instance, do deer have a greater tendency to jump out in front of you at ranges where it would be impossible to avoid them, or do they tend to pick the wrong place (on the road) to just decide to take a break? what is the road doing when these encounters happen... straights, bends, blind bends? whether greater speed can help you or not is all dependent on the details of the encounter.
and yes, up to a point (once again
dependent on the details of the encounter) greater speed allows a vehicle to maneuver or
both increase its' angular rate of change and control the separation distance relative to a potential threat object. in some cases going faster actually allows one to influence the severity of the impact... let me explain:
back in the early-mid 90's (I dont remember what year exactly) I was involved in an accident where an elderly man in a newer lincoln turned out in front of me from the opposing side - either he didnt see my headlights or his depth perception wasnt all that great at night. I was doing the speed limit on this particular road (45mph - its a 3-lane street), but his turn occurred when I was already too close to brake without T-boning him with my '72 dodge dart (no ABS, heavy, would likely end up skidding into him causing major damage and possibly killing his passenger at this short range, as a car's ability to maneuver is severely impaired when braking) so, I floored it (its a dodge dart... they can haul ass) and steered towards the right lane as at this point he was blocking me from angling for the left lane to shoot behind him. he barely clipped me on the rear quarter-panel just before the bumper, and I ended up in a very slow spin (only spun about 90 degrees) and that was it. my car ended up with a barely noticeable dent - 1972 construction FTW - the lincoln had lost a headlight and crunched a fender. no injuries, everybody lived
as to all those police chase videos - I havent seen one yet where the officers were facing an adversary who knows how to handle a vehicle better than they do. remember that police are trained in the dark arts of vehicular combat, and so are familiar with many of the same techniques that combat pilots are trained in, just applied to a 2-d field. granted most are not trained much beyond the most basic of techniques and theory, but that is still light years beyond the skillset of the average american driver (including most 'professional' car thieves). it should come as no surprise at all that the guy running from the cops will eventually break something. besides... once a helicopter arrives overhead, the chase is over - the suspect just doesn't know it yet.