Accident avoidance...To brake or to swerve?

We all have been in some tight situations when it comes to avoiding a accident and we automatically brake or swerve without thinking.  Some of us have made the wrong decision on whether to brake or swerve, hopefully you are never in that position again but unfortunately as a rider we are always in that position  after reading this article hopefully it will help you to make a better informed decision on to brake or swerve to avoid an accident.

The purpose of this article is solely for information purposes. It is not the intent of this article to encourage or recommend any type of maneuver.  When a rider is confronted with a sudden obstacle ( be a car pulling in your line, a deer crossing the road etc. etc.) you have to evaluate the situation and decide how to react. Your primary options are to attempt to brake to a stop or swerve around the obstacle.

Which decision is more likely to result in avoiding the accident is based on physics of movement (kinematics).  Based on experimental data and published accident investigations we can plot the required distance to brake and the distance to swerve.

As braking distance increases by the square of the speed, we draw the following conclusions:

If traveling from 0 to 50 MPH (give or take 5 miles depending on road conditions and rider skills) braking is the best option.  Traveling in excess of 50 MPH the braking distance increases exponentially and swerving becomes the best option.

Since both braking and swerving are maneuvers based on the law of physics, we can conclude (in general) at “lower” speeds, braking is the better accident-avoidance maneuver, while at “higher” speeds, swerving is the better one.