Don't swerve for animals...
Best advice my dad ever gave me, because I grew up in South Australia, where the idiotic government has cursed the roads with the most lethal traffic device ever.
Brief backstory... South Australia has bugger all trees so the electricity company invented the Stobie Pole to hang lights and power lines off. Basically it's two steel I-beams with concrete in between.
These are planted on the side of the road, edge on to traffic.
Almost completely imovable, the basic result of hitting one is your car is sliced in half until momentum runs out.
I've seen engines pushed into the back seat. No kidding.
Here's a pic of a Ferrari that hit one at a relatively slow speed
tinyurl.com/stobie1
And another car that was going slightly faster.
tinyurl.com/stobie2
They're slowly being phased out, but in the meantime, this is what people in SA face every time they go for a drive and it's why if a cat or a dog runs out in front of your car, you DO NOT swerve.
( difficultchild, Fri 23 Apr 2010, 3:03, 3 replies)

Possibly because
most of my on-road experience in SA has been in rural areas, I was expecting the lethal traffic device to be wombats.
(teff, Fri 23 Apr 2010, 7:53, closed)

Wombats!!
Shit, forgot about them. Like hitting a full keg.
( difficultchild, Sun 25 Apr 2010, 11:03, closed)

and another
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/new-years-road-death/story-e6frea83-1225815579297

But we do have a lot of trees. They claim the same amount as stobies generally. Stobies actually give a bit more than the general big bastard tree.
(Monkee girl not a monkee, not a girl, Tue 27 Apr 2010, 2:32, closed)