Driver swerves to miss cat, hits 36 kids

[Roofus]

The driver of a passenger car dodged a cat and the vehicle crashed into a line of nursery school children in the city of Shizuoka on Thursday afternoon, injuring 36 children and an adult looking after them, police said.

Five of them were injured seriously in the accident which occurred on a road with one lane on each side at around 1:10 p.m., firefighters said. The children are aged 4 or 5, and the adult is 23. The police arrested the driver, Akira Yano, 59, on suspicion of inflicting injuries caused by negligence.

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[ptr.exe]

I don't think he should really be prosecuted, it was an accident surely? not neglegence.

[Specially Cork]

I don't think he should really be prosecuted, it was an accident surely? not neglegence.

No, it was neglegence. If you are going to swerve, at least look where you are swerving too.

[ptr.exe]

I don't think he should really be prosecuted, it was an accident surely? not neglegence.

No, it was neglegence. If you are going to swerve, at least look where you are swerving too.

He probably had less than a second between seeing the cat and needing to react before hitting it.

You're saying he should be put in prison for this?

[OldSkoolGamer]

Seems to be a trend these days.

As a driver you need to be aware of all of your surroundings all of the time. Can you miss one kid who is in the street instead of the sidewalk? Maybe...
Seriously though. How can you not be aware of a whole line of over a dozen people.

You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

[butters]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

[Specially Cork]

I don't think he should really be prosecuted, it was an accident surely? not neglegence.

No, it was neglegence. If you are going to swerve, at least look where you are swerving too.

He probably had less than a second between seeing the cat and needing to react before hitting it.

You're saying he should be put in prison for this?

Yes. If you are driving down a street and dont notice 36 kids then you are being neglegent. Reaction times have nothing to do with it, the kids didnt appear out of nowhere, and any competent driver would notice them as a hazard.

Aditionally evasive driving is only acceptable in most countries if their is a risk of human life, or if there are no other hazards around you.

Bottom line is, swerving into 36 children in order to avoid hitting a cat isnt an accident, it is completely the fault of the driver.

[hearld500]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

[ptr.exe]

I don't think he should really be prosecuted, it was an accident surely? not neglegence.

No, it was neglegence. If you are going to swerve, at least look where you are swerving too.

He probably had less than a second between seeing the cat and needing to react before hitting it.

You're saying he should be put in prison for this?

Yes. If you are driving down a street and dont notice 36 kids then you are being neglegent. Reaction times have nothing to do with it, the kids didnt appear out of nowhere, and any competent driver would notice them as a hazard.

Aditionally evasive driving is only acceptable in most countries if their is a risk of human life, or if there are no other hazards around you.

Bottom line is, swerving into 36 children in order to avoid hitting a cat isnt an accident, it is completely the fault of the driver.

I suppose that is true, he should of noticed 36 kids.

But maybe he had thought it through and took a differant viewpoint, perhaps he believed the mental trauma for the kids of seeing an innocent cat flattened was far worse than hitting them with a car, and decided accordingly.... perhaps....

[Lartrak]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

People sometimes die when they hit deer. Things like them going through the windshield.

[Tall Israeli]

This is why I don't swerve out of the way when animals on the road. I really don't see why people do it and yes it does piss me off when I'm in the car and they do do it. Almost 90% of the time you put yourself in the danger instead of the damn animal and no offense to the animal kingdom, but I think a dead human is worse than a dead squirrel.

[hearld500]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

People sometimes die when they hit deer. Things like them going through the windshield.

Yes, I know. Thats why I assumed he was driving an import instead of a pickup.

[Specially Cork]

I guess with large animals you could argue that their is a risk of human life...your life.

[AgentGreen]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

People sometimes die when they hit deer. Things like them going through the windshield.

Yes, I know. Thats why I assumed he was driving an import instead of a pickup.

Dude, hitting a WILD TURKEY can stove up the front end of a truck pretty good. I live in an area where there are a lot of trucks and a lot of deer and deer can still manage to go through the windshield of a rather tall truck.

[Lartrak]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

People sometimes die when they hit deer. Things like them going through the windshield.

Yes, I know. Thats why I assumed he was driving an import instead of a pickup.

Dude, hitting a WILD TURKEY can stove up the front end of a truck pretty good. I live in an area where there are a lot of trucks and a lot of deer and deer can still manage to go through the windshield of a rather tall truck.

Yeah. I grew up in Michigan, home of 60,000ish deer-car collisions a year People died every year (average of five annually in Michigan) from hitting dear.

[ghostparty]

Roofus where the hell do you find this crap!?

[butters]

Seems to be a trend these days.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal. I'm all for attempting to slow down in your own lane if no one is following behind you. If someone is behind me though, I'm not going to risk the person behind me hitting my car when I slow down that suddenly.

It really depends on how big the animal is. Around here you will be driving down the highway and a deer will walk in the middle of the road. I'd rather be rear ended than wreck into a deer.

What?

I'm guessing that you drive a small import?

I drive a Ford Ranger (don't laugh).

The fact of the matter is a big deer can be over 1000 lbs. If you hit something like that at 70 mph you are going to smash up pretty much anything smaller than a semi.

[FuriKuri]

My mom hit a dear in her chevy astro van going about 65mph. It smashed the front of the van in 3 inches and crcked the winshield. My mom was ok from the accident and the van made a full recovery. The problem is with swerving to miss an animal is that you take a very high risk of hitting something else like a telephone pole, light pole, tree, oncoming car, or whatever. Granted you should try to avoid hitting animals, but a lot more people die avoiding animals then just hitting them.