Ever Hit a Deer?

Worked on a ranch near Wyoming. Deer hitting was a rite of passage.

At least three people hit them this past summer. Thank God, I wasn't one.

Tip I learned later. Not sure if it works, but a rural Pa. person told me if you turn on your interior light, it will scare them away.

 

That has to be worth trying, especially in known high-risk areas.

 

I drilled one driving down I-55 in Mississippi a few years ago. Almost had no time to react, so I was probably still going 60 when I hit it. For some reason, I never closed my eyes on impact so I saw the deer get sent like a projectile missile into the darkness on the left side of the road. I remember it flipping head over heels a few times in the air before disappearing. Felt like a dream. It messed up the front of my car pretty bad, but I was still able to drive it.

After that, I bought some of those really cheap deer whistles and slapped them on the front of my car. I seriously doubt they work, but I haven't hit a deer since so maybe it's good luck...

 

Enjoy.

 

If given my choice, I'd pick hitting a deer over a skunk, or possibly worse, being right behind the car that kills the skunk. Covering a playoff football game a few years back, my photog is driving in front of me and drills a skunk. My car reeked for well over a week, I was bad for at least 24.

 

Yep. Years ago at night. If it had stood still my avoidance maneuver would have missed it. About $2,500 in damage if I remember.

 

A couple of deer-related misadventures:

1. On my second job out of college at a small daily in Southeast Texas, the father of one of the stud athletes in our coverage area walked into a pen holding a "domesticated" deer and was gored to death.

2. Many years later while I was driving home from a late desk shift in Western Pa., a deer appeared out of nowhere at literally the last second and took off my driver's side mirror. It looked like a decapitated robot arm after the collision. I looked back and saw it walk off the road, but I have no idea what happened to it after that.

3. Driving that same road in Western Pa. after a desk shift, a deer walked out into the road in front of me. I swerved (I know, not supposed to do that) and missed the deer, only to look in my rear-view mirror in time to see it slam smack into the car behind me. The last I saw of it, its four legs were standing straight up like that horse from Animal House.

3. While driving across Montana on vacation at night a couple of years ago, I spent the night driving in a rental car and was paranoid I was going to hit another deer, because every couple of miles or so, I'd come upon a cluster of them standing by the side of the road. I never saw a thing until my headlights caught the glow of their eyes as I drove by. Didn't hit anything, but it was an unnerving experience.

 

In high school, lightly smacked a big buck with my mom's 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix, which was approximately the size of a pontoon boat. The deer never stopped.

Same road stretch of road, maybe five years later. Coming back from covering a basketball game and coincidentally, just a few hundred feet from my parents' house, I come around a curve at about 60 mph and completely obliterate two young deer that were following their mother across the road. Didn't even have time to swerve, although after hitting them, my new 1979 Toyota Cressida slid into the opposite lane. I don't want to think about what would have happened if a car had been heading in the opposite direction when it happened.

Walked to a nearby house to call the office and my parents.

Sports editor: "So when can I expect that story? I need it."

My stepdad towed the car home. He had a garage and did enough work to get the car running again. He said there were deer "remains" from bumper-to-bumper underneath it.

Messed up the car big-time. I loved that car. It was the first one I bought myself. It looked kind of like a Jaguar. After that, it looked like a fouled-up Jag and never ran right again.

Not all that coincidentally, I think I've had only one speeding ticket since, and this was in the fall of 1988. I'd had probably three or four in the previous four years. Living where I live, these things are going to happen, so I figure why press my luck by going 75 mph everywhere?

 

Twelve years ago, the night my daughter made her ninth-grade basketball team. We were driving her home, turned the corner and I saw the six-point on the right side of the road. Looked for all the world like he was just sitting and watching until I got to him, at which point he met my right front bumper, flew OVER the car and landed in the left-hand lane.

At which point he got up and half-trotted, half-limped into the woods. I think he cursed at me, too. Not sure.

 

All these stories and I keep thinking of the scene in Tommy Boy.

 

Have hit a deer on two separate occasions.
One, the poor thing had been hit by a car in the other lane, just at dusk, hit the pavement and started spinning. I literally ran over it, like a speed bump with antlers.
Two, I was on I-95 south in South Carolina late one night. Had a semi over my right shoulder in the right lane. Deer came loping from the median. Couldn't swerve right; really couldn't swerve left. Caught in the hindquarters. Don't know if the semi trailing me hit it or not. Don't want to know, either.
When I go home at night, I go much slower down my road since there's always plenty of deer around. The speed limit's 30 and I'll keep it around 25 for the extra split second of reaction. At that time of night, there ain't another soul on the road driving.

 

Same here. I almost always see deer along the road back to our development.