On another forum I posted a few personal experiences of mine, as well as read through some of others, of the vehicle running over a stray dog. With the high number of stray dogs and the low amount of intelligence they show in public places, it often becomes impossible to avoid these strays altogether and you aren't left with much choice than either to run over it or risk a serious accident.

There are some members who are upset over any vehicle running over stray dogs and are crying bloody murder at these people as if these people have some hidden agenda of running over each and every stray dog they can find.

I have personally been caught in such a situation three times, where the stray doesn't move out of your path, you can't take evasive action as the neighbouring lanes are occupied by other vehicles and you can't slow down quickly for fear of a rear-end collision. In all these situations I have had to run over the strays, but I have tried to be as slow as was permissible under the circumstances. The slowness was more to avoid any serious damage to my car than any love to the stray dogs, let me be honest.

However that poses a serious question: When you see an accident with another vehicle or live being imminent, whom should you try to save? Of course the ideal situation would be you avoid the accident altogether or manage to prevent harm to everyone involved, but practically the situation is mostly less than ideal. So here's a question I want to ask:

You have just left a red light, you are driving at around 60kmph, other vehicles are hot on your tail to catch up. You are in the middle lane, and both the other lanes are occupied by vehicles trying to overtake you. And there are a few right behind you, waiting for you to yield them the way. There's a curve ahead in the road. You take the curve and then see a stray dog standing right in the path of your car. The distance is too short to gradually brake to a halt, vehicles in both neighbouring lanes are right at your heels, so you cannot change the lanes without crashing into either one of them. And if you brake hard, a rear-end collision is guaranteed. As soon as you spot the stray, you honk, flash your lights, but it simply doesn't pay attention to you, nor does it get out of the way. What do you do?

My priorities in such a scenario would be pretty well defined:

1. Protect the occupants of my car, myself and my car first and foremost
2. If I can achieve the primary objective, then think of saving the stray.

If both are not possible, I am going to forego objective #2 above so I can meet objective #1.

Some would say the choice between a stray and a human being is much simpler. But now comes the killer. What if it were a human being? Someone suddenly stumbled into your car's path, you have tried honking and flashing but the person doesn't or can't move out of the way. You know the only alternative to hitting the person is to risk a serious accident that will most certainly injure you or your passengers. What do you do?

There have been cases here where a motorist tried to save a pedestrian (when the pedestrian was clearly at fault), and died himself in the process. Also this question is in context of the Indian roads and driving conditions.

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