I had my share with animals while driving/riding.
Incident 1 : Chevrolet Spark Vs Dog.
This incident happened on my way to Chennai from Villipuram. I was in the middle lane doing 80 - 85 Kmph. I saw an old man crossing the road few hundred meters ahead, I slowed down on seeing him. There was a dog following the old chap. Both of them crossed the road well ahead of me, so I started accelerating again. All of a sudden, another dog decided to cross the road. I didn't swerve on seeing the second dog, braked hard but I did hit the dog.
I pulled over to check the damage on the car, there wasn't any visible damage. Don't know what happened to the dog, though. I couldn't trace it when I went back to check.
Incident 2 : Honda City Vs Dog.
This incident happened on my way to Thrissur from Coimbatore. It was quite late actually and the route I took was via Shornur. It was beautifully laid, two lane, winding road. I was behind an Eicher lorry for quite some time, it was doing good speed as well, IIRC 80Kmph ish.
After overtaking the lorry, it was tailgating me too close, I increased the speed to gain some distance. And all of a sudden a dog decided to cross the road from the left. I can replay the incident even today, again I didn't swerve, I held the steering tight for some reason. I braked hard, the ABS kicked in and I released the brake soon as I know there is that lorry behind me.
Luckily for me and the dog, nothing bad happened. I let the lorry guy overtake me after this incident and happily followed him till Trichur.
Incident 3 : CBR 250 Vs Calf
I was going to my brother's home after office hours via Chennai - Tambaram bypass. I was a bit reckless on bike then, I was about to overtake a bus in the middle lane. I was doing 85 Kmph and accelerating.
I just glanced at the median, there were cattle grazing there. I was like, guys don't cross the road now. Then as if this calf hear my thought, decided to jump right in front of me. I looked for the gap between the calf on my right and the bus on the left, braked hard, ABS kicked. My right handle hit the calf, on the face I believe. After getting hit it returned back to the median.
I have to swerve here, other wise you know what would have happened.
My little finger got swollen and as I was convinced that I got a fracture, I pulled over to a small lab to take X-ray. I felt quite dizzy, drank some water and left that place without taking X-ray. Went to Miot hospital and what happened there was quite funny, I will save rest of what happened there for another post.
Incident 4 : Honda City Vs Old chap
This happened a long time ago, during my initial driving days. It was my first long drive with family. We were going to Kottayam. There was an old chap waiting near the zebra crossing, he had a huge basket or something on his head.
He was patiently waiting there looking at the opposite traffic, I thought he won't cross the road. All of a sudden he crossed, I have to take an immediate evasive manoeuvre. The left hand side mirror narrowly missed him.
Here I was completely at fault, the old chap was waiting at the zebra crossing. I didn't slow down nor did I honk.
Misc
Sadly in India we have to sometime, learn the lessons the hard way. Now that I am following the defensive driving technique, I often get ridiculed for driving slowly especially when driving along with my friends.
This June, me along with my friends decided to go to Pondicherry from Chennai. It was a late night decision and I decided to take the wheel of the Scorpio. I never went above 90 Kmph throughout, I got ridiculed a lot but I didn't budge.
Return journey my friend took over, he wanted to show me how is it done, he was doing 120 plus most of the way. I tried my best to slow him but he won't budge. He is delusional, nothing much can be done for people like him. He thinks he has taken care for all the worst case scenarios.
I have forwarded this thread to him also, nope, he hasn't changed a bit. I always beat him at go karting, though.
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