Dodge Viper Crash: Why We’re Thankful for the SRT Viper’s ESP????

Nine Ball

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Agreed. We've already seen one fatality accident in a pre-production '13, unfortunately. I believe it was wet conditions, also.
 

MtnBiker

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Another dang deer. Seems deer like to look at Vipers too.

I drove the heck out of my car this weekend from Houston to Tyler. Not a single deer sighting. But I can assure you that I took a few corners way too fast where after I got through them I thought that was close. If one doesn't know the roads very well and is carrying too much speed into a corner, then thinking oh crap I better slow down, and putting on the brakes in the corner, the car, any car, can get unbalanced. The Viper (pre-2013) doesn't have the nannies to get you out of the oversteer situation.

Best advice for these cars, unless you are a track rat with lots of trail braking exerience, it's best to do all your braking in a straight line before the turn . Otherwise deer just start popping up all over the place.
 

MoparMap

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I had a similar experience this past weekend. Was changing lanes at the same times as the car in front of me on the highway when it suddenly swerves back revealing a full semi tire tread sitting directly in front of me. Pulled the wheel hard to dodge and manged to miss it, but then had to do my best to keep the car out of the ditch because it turned so quick. Felt the rear end shimmy around some as I was trying to straighten back out, but it all settled down okay. Took a few seconds to get the heart beating again and catch my breath though.
 

Mopar Steve

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Far too many accidents are attributed to deer. This may have been a deer as the driver said, but too many times poor driving decisions, speed, and inexperience, are the true cause of these incidents.
 
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johniew398

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johniew398

johniew398

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My bad, didn't realize the different rims and damage. Sounded like the same story of those dangerous deers...

Although we live in town and in a large development I have to watch out for deer. Where I go down the hill to hit the interstate it's common for deer to run across the street in front of you. My only saving grace is the speed limit is only about 30.

I was telling my wife it is better to hit the deer normally (of course tell yourself that in a split second). Hitting a deer with a low Viper I guess wouldn't be any fun since it is probably going to come over the hood and through the windshield.

A local cop saved me once concerning a deer strike. I knew he was at the top of hill running his radar so I was keeping my speed down. Out of the corner of my eye I spied a deer coming and he cleared me except I just got him with my right front fender, didn't even leave a mark and the deer never even slowed down.
 

Garron

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My bad, didn't realize the different rims and damage. Sounded like the same story of those dangerous deers...

It is never driver error.......60% of all viper accidents are from deer, the other 40% are from rear knuckles.
 

BlueLIGHTNING

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Well this past Wednesday I was driving the wife's Buick from Ottawa back home on three separate occasions deer crossed our path. On the four lane road with a large piece of grass in the middle the damn deer crossed so fast from the opposite direction that I almost took it out. Was just looking straight ahead, next thing I see in the grass medium is this deer coming straight at me. It was in the middle of the afternoon, thank God for ABS breaks not sure how the '96 GTS would have handle that because I came within feet of smashing the deer, personally don't think it would have stayed on the road without ABS.
 
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NI-KA

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There ARE way to many deer in areas you never saw them in 10 or 20 years ago.

Granted it is a convenient excuse; However, we need more people to go hunting.
 

slysnake

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Far too many accidents are attributed to deer.
Man, the number of dead deer (hit by cars) and deer that you see run across the road is unreal. Yeah, I do believe the "swerved to miss a deer" story.
 

balance

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There ARE way to many deer in areas you never saw them in 10 or 20 years ago.

Granted it is a convenient excuse; However, we need more people to go hunting.

Absolutely agree. Wow, chronic problem just about everywhere it seems.
 

ViperSmith

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There ARE way to many deer in areas you never saw them in 10 or 20 years ago.

Granted it is a convenient excuse; However, we need more people to go hunting.

Agree, while it can be a convenient excuse - we have a lot of deer around us. Sometimes you just see a group Standing by the road...

Anyway, always better to hit the deer head on than swerve, no matter the car.
 

DrumrBoy

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Holy Moley....that bus driver stayed pretty calm when that thing was trying to jump out the hole where he came in. I don't know if I'd'a had the poise to just sit there!
 

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