Route selection for automated vehicle is a challenging task under critical situations, i.e., which can lead to serious or fatal injury. Due to the high risk of a dangerous collision with its consequences on human participants, the selection on possible routes poses ethical problems. This paper proposes a multi-layer route selection strategy for automated vehicles under critical situations, in which ethical considerations have been incorporated. The selection strategy contains a graph-based quantitative evaluation layer and a layer with qualitative evaluation based on the ethical principles. The operation of the route selection method through some examples is illustrated.