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Something that bugs me a lot. To swerve or not to swerve to avoid hitting an animal if it suddenly darts out onto the road infront of you. In Singapore's context, usually a dog, cat, sambar deer, monkeys? What else? Our natural instinct would be to swerve right? I'm an animal lover and instinctively, I would as well. But is that really the right thing to do? There's so many factors to consider, road condition, any cars near me, will the car behind me be able to stop safely? But fact is we don't have the luxury of time to analyze. What are the consequence of swerving to avoid hitting an animal? You place your passengers at risk, most will react by swerving left or right, you may end up hitting a barrier, a tree, you may take a car or two along with you, or even a motorcycle with a pillion, you may end up causing a chain collision. Worst still, you may end up mounting the curb and taking a bystander on the pavement along with you (if it's on small roads). What if you suddenly e-brake? You may cause a horrific rear collision if the car behind you is unable to react in time. What happens then if you hit the animal head on? You end up feeling guilty for killing an animal, you'll end up paying for your broken bumper/fender or other repairs. But hopefully the impact ends there. Importantly what we should do is to maintain a proper following distance, be attentive on the road and react properly on the road. Unless, you are dead sure of the road and traffic condition around you (no cars, no bikes, no pedestrians), don't swerve. Not saying that animals lives ain't important but just saying don't jeopardize the lives of others while trying to save that dog, cat or squirrel. And dog owners, please keep your pets leashed. No use crying if you don't leash your pets and then it ends up a road kill. The only fault of the driver then would be if he hits and then run.