Accident: My Toyota Innova hits a cow on the highway

The cow walked away from the incident but my Innova's bonnet was crushed.

BHPian sridhu recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Like everyone else, I never wanted to be a part of this thread personally!

But, as fate would have it, I have an entry.

TL;DR: Hit a cow. No injuries/ fatalities

My knees hurt yesterday morning and I took the momentous decision not to walk. Then, it was decided that I have to go to Tirupati for the 12th-day ceremonies of my cousin. So, I drove alone to Tirupathi. And, on the way back, had a right-of-way argument with a cow.

The cow won, of course. I was extremely glad nobody died and that there were no injuries. What happened:

A cowherd was grazing 2-3 cows on the median. They suddenly decided to make a run for it and ran in front of me. I slammed the brakes but still hit the cow on the offside. I think I slowed down enough - the cow walked and even the airbags did not deploy even though the bonnet was crushed. Either that or the airbags did not trigger.

Also, there is no soreness in the shoulder today morning. Both these indicators lead me to think that I slowed down enough but not enough!

This being India (and Andhra), there was an immediate crowd and people started talking about compensating the "poor cowherd". This, despite him accepting it was completely his fault.

I started the calling process of informing the family, arranging for the tow truck and informing insurance. Obviously, I walked away from the crowd to hear clearly. After the calls, I noticed that no one was near me and decided to cool things a bit and decided to go for a walk. When I returned 30 minutes later, there was no one there. No cow either.

Again, deciding to push along a good thing, I went back for a walk and came back when the tow truck came. Was able to get the car towed without incident or 'payment' to unknown parties.

My point is, I had to walk around 20k steps and my knee pain had vanished.

Knees are weird!

Cow steps in. Note the guy trying to reach for the rope to restrain it.

Here's what BHPian tazmaan had to say on the matter:

These things happen and glad that you are ok. Having a relatively bigger car like Innova helped you stay safe.

The shunt looks strong enough to deploy the airbags which did not. The car can always be repaired and lucky you were allowed to walk away. In most cases, the mob would either damage the car further or damage the driver or dent the wallet.

I had a similar close shave at Ahmedabad.

Here's what BHPian msdivy had to say on the matter:

Sorry to hear about the incident. As a defensive driving technique, if there is a cow on the median, slow down then change lane. The speed will drop from 100 to 20 for no reason but you will mitigate the situation safely.

PS: You may note down the area/location and complain about it on the 1033 helpline later. It is the job of highway maintenance to ensure safe roads.

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