Sure, but if you were on a highway, would you slam on the brakes? I hope not. There's a calculation here of balancing the perceived risk of an obstruction with

Sure, but if you were on a highway, would you slam on the brakes? I hope not. There's a calculation here of balancing the perceived risk of an obstruction with the consequences of avoiding it or braking in time. Drivers have to make this decision all the time, on a highway they will generally assume it's safer to hit most things than swerve or panic brake, because it's mostly likely not that dangerous to collide with. At least one stat I saw from AAA is that ~40% of the deaths from road debris result from drivers swerving to avoid them.