Should I have slammed on my brakes to save the hare?

[Hummusontoast]

Driving down the A1 (single carriageway) at 60mph and it runs out in front of my car. I had a car behind me. I slow down to say 40 and it looks like it is going to make it then bang. I don’t know what happened. I think it either stopped and darted backwards or my judgement was faulty in road positioning terms. I could have slammed on my brake but I don’t know if the car behind me would have had time to stop or not. Maybe I should have tried positioning myself a little further to the left. I’ve not been driving for long and I’m gutted. Feel like a shit driver 😞

I'm a bit surprised at all the replies saying you can't hard brake or you'll cause an accident. I was always taught that you had to leave a gap between you and the car in front and follow at a safe distance

You cannot assume all other drivers will adhere to the same standards as you. Better to assume that most of the other drivers are bona fide morons. More often than not you will be correct.

Sorry this happened to you. It is harsh hitting an animal when driving. My driving instructor told me that whilst you might’ve hit x animal, you’ve fed a fox family, or other carnivores and it’s the circle of life etc.

I nearly twatted a muntjac deer. I was driving along at 30mph in a 30 zone, slowing down to go down hill and it ran straight in front of my car. I was able to brake ever so gently as it was already braking to control my speed, and whoosh, is zoomed across. Luckily I didn’t hit it, but it must’ve been millimetres from disaster.

I have had a pheasant go through the grill, and know a bloke to had a chicken smash through his windscreen and sent glass, blood and feathers everywhere.

it’s the hazard of driving. Don’t overthink it, I know it’s hard.

Could be worse OP. I had to plough through a line of ducklings on a 70mph dual carriageway once 😥😥 it was so busy there was nowhere else to go but through them. Awful.

It is sad but you did the right thing. You shouldn't stop for an animal unless it's safe to do so. I live rurally and over the last decade I've hit a few things. Grouse in particular will stand in the road till a car is almost upon them then fly to the other side directly into oncoming traffic.

As others have said, you did the right thing. It sounds like you slowed as much as it was safe to do, if you'd slammed your brakes on the car too close behind you might have killed your dog.

It's upsetting but the situation wasn't of your making and you did what you could.

Physics and maths will show that on a motorway there's no way you can suddenly stop no matter how large the normal size gap going 70 on a motorway without causing a major accident

Emergency Braking for Animals

If you hit a big enough animal it can come through the windscreen and kill or cause some serious damage to yourself.

Why does that matter? @tilder

I don't put the dog in the boot for that very reason, it makes me uneasy seeing them in that vulnerable position.

Just came to say yanbu.. this is extreme, however a number of years ago an old school friend of mine tried to avoid hitting a fox. He lost control and didn't make it, he was early 20s. Slow down, yes, sudden breaking or swerving, no.

"Yes, but having the moral high ground of "well you were driving too close!" doesn't really help when they've slammed in to the back of you"

No, but it does help Claim off the third party insurer.

It’s all very well to say that the car behind you should be travelling at a safe distance, but If you’re travelling at speed and suddenly slam on the brakes there is a real danger of causing an accident. I wouldn’t be slamming on the brakes for any animal unless I thought I could come out if it unscathed.

“Physics and maths will show that on a motorway there's no way you can suddenly stop no matter how large the normal size gap going 70 on a motorway without causing a major accident”

Balderdash, I ALWAYS leave a big enough gap that should traffic stop suddenly then I am able to stop in time. This also ties in nicely with the golden rule I’m sure every driver knows and follows, YOU MUST ALWAYS BE ABLE TO STOP IN THE DISTANCE YOU CAN SEE TO BE CLEAR.

For anyone with spatial awareness issues they can use a fixed point such as a lamppost and when the car in fronts rear bumper is level with the post say at normal speed “only a fool ignores the two second rule”. If you pass post before sentence complete then your too close. This is for dry roads mind, you need a four second gap on wet roads and eight seconds in the snow.

I had this happen to me once. I was in the third Lane if the A1, doing around 70mph. A duck ran out from the central reservation and I didn’t even have seconds to react. Unfortunately I hit it. Even worse, it’s babies ran out behind it infront of the cars behind me. I couldn’t look in the mirror, I don’t see how the car could have avoided them. I cried, the kids cried (and they didn’t see the babies!) but any kind of braking or swerving would have caused a crash. Sometimes it’s unavoidable and whilst I’m an animal Lover, I’d rather hit a rabbit or duck than potentially cause an accident and possibly kill a person

But having the moral high ground won't help when your car is a write off, you're potentially badly injured and your dog in the boot is dead because someone has ploughed into the back of you and potentially sent you skidding down the road into a tree or another car.

Hitting a hare, while unpleasant for the driver, is unlikely to damage a person or your car. Braking for one at 60mph could potentially cause a multi-car pile up and kill a person. I know which I'd chose 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s unfortunate but difficult to avoid. Feeling slightly better this morning.

Brake yes, slamming on the brakes on a main road no and definitely no swerving.

When I was young my colleague, 19, was killed as his friend swerved for a fox and they hit a tree. My DD is the same age and we've spoken about animals darting out. Brake yes but no swerving. It is sad when you hit a small animal but humans are more important.

You did nothing wrong but it’s unsettling killing an animal. A few years ago I splattered a squirrel that ran across the motorway and, whilst there was obvs nothing I could’ve done, it did stay on my mind for a while.

I live rurally and the roads are full of animals darting in and out of the roads, it’s so precarious. Certain times of the day and indeed, certain seasons are worse than others. You learn to drive slower than usual to accommodate the kamikaze deer, pheasants and squirrels that are everywhere.

I have v sadly killed a few squirrels and DH has killed a pigeon. Every time, I had someone behind me so it was a case of slowing down a bit and bracing myself for that unmistakable thud. I felt v bad afterwards but not as bad as I’d had felt if I’d caused a fatal crash. Someone said upthread that your instinct is to slam on the brakes but it really shouldn’t be and isn’t for me 🤷🏻‍♀️ you need to be able to react calmly to all sorts of emergency situations when you are a road user and slamming on the brakes is a terrible decision to make when in traffic.

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You’re a credit to the Highway Code. Meanwhile, for the rest of us driving on the real world M25, admirable and correct you may be, all you’re doing is providing a gap for others to sharply pull out in front of you, right into your braking zone distance.

A police officer told me they were trained not to brake or swerve as that causes more accidents.

Well this is all v well but when a driver goes into the back of you because they are on their phone, not concentrating, settling their kids, arguing with their wives, then it’s too late, isn’t it?

I find it v concerning that you naïvely trust others to drive as sensibly as you. Have you seen the way some people drive

Always treat other road users as if they are idiots. Never rely on them to drive responsibly and to rule.

Yes you should brake if it is safe to but it wasn't. You're right that it is the car behinds responsibility for keeping a safe distance but knowing it wasn't your fault won't be any comfort in intensive care after the accident.

Poor thing, I would be devastated to kill an animal but it really wasn't a choice, you tried to avoid it and couldn't.

We hit two birds on a motorway recently, my partner who was driving felt awful. I said they had a natural life and death was very quick and sudden. All of which is MUCH better than any meat or animal products you buy in a supermarket. So I'd maybe focus on that.