I'm still shaking.

[Clete]

I almost killed a deer tonight

I never go out after dark, but tonight DH was out of his juice and I drove down to the convenience store. It was foggy and I saw the shape in the road almost too late. I was able to stop in time and the doe was able to jump back into the brush. But I am still shook up.

I have lived in rural areas for about ten years now and this has never happened to me even on empty roads. The road I almost had the encounter is a fairly busy one. Wheres matcom when I need a drink. :beer:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. that is spooky... you have the whistler thingys on your car?

they do work

[Clete]

2. Had them on the old truck.

But completely forgot about them on this car. Thanks for the reminder.

[Clete]

16. Thanks everybody for sharing. I am feeling a little better now.

:-)

[alwynsw]

24. Whistlers are a great deer attractor

Just ask me about the 4 deer I've hit (well one jumped out and broadsided ME!) with whistlers on my vehicles. Never hit a deer in my life until I was 44 and "wised up" and put whistlers on my jeep. Got the first two in just under a month.

I finally got wise and removed the whistlers. No more deeridents.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. I have found turning off the lights can avert catastrophe

"the deer in the headlights" can snap out of it if you give them a chance.
Usually you're on high beams at night. Switch to low beams or turn them off entirely for a sec. and that seems to help.
Honking the horn helps too but then they can run in the exact wrong (read: crash) direction.

[Nikia]

4. I hate deer

Why do they have to be so stupid? Luckily, I have never been in a car while a deer was hit. I have seen them suddenly jump onto the raod, especially at night. My husband hit one last winter. He was driving on a rural road at night. One jumped onto the road. It was icy so when he hit the breaks he spun around. The deer stood in the road, watching him spin. My husband ended up hitting him with the back end of the car after spinning around twice. I am glad that I wasn't there.

[koopie57]

5. I know how you are feeling

I was on 35 W in mpls following my husband and he was driving way too fast for me to feel comfortable in the first place and was swearing at him under my breath, trying to keep up so I wouldn't get lost and a deer ran out, I saw his eyes catch in my headlights and I hit the brakes and started fishtailing, there were a few other cars around and I felt the tires on the drivers side lift up and then hit hard again the other side just lift up a little and I knew I was going to ge okay but I was so scared and I tried to call him on his cell to tell him to pull over but he had his music so loud he coudn't hear the phone and by the time I got home I was ready to kill him..........oh crap...I'm pissed off again. I'll fix the drinks....you mind a brandy coke? I'm 46 years old and my heart ain't up that type of excitement anymore.

[Friar]

6. my brother hit a deer outside of Susanville years ago

He didn't realize that the deer was stuck under the car and he continued to drive down the mountain. He noticed this awful smell and pulled into a gas station to see what was wrong. In the dark he couldn't see anything but when he backed out of the stall the deer remained. He was horrified but still just drove off with the semi-cooked (from friction) deer carcass laying there.

I thought it was a funny story. Not for the deer.

[Elidor]

7. I was hit by a kamikaze deer once

Georgia 400, about 30 minutes south of Dahlonega. I was doing 70 in the fast lane when something in the median caught my eye. A deer was running toward me and I was unable to evade it. It ran into the front quarterpanel of my Fiero and knocked me from the fast lane into the slow lane. I looked in my rear view and saw it do THREE end-over-end flips in the air, land on the highway, and get up and run off. I suspect it was mortally wounded, but maybe not.

It knocked my car so bad out of alignment, I had to hold the steering wheel 90 degrees out of kilter to go straight. I couldn't stop shaking for 30 minutes. A few nights previously, a racoon on Hwy. 9 near Dawsonville appeared out of nowhere in my headlights and ripped the spoiler clean off my car when I hit it. Made me cry, even, for the poor stupid animal. There was something strange and suicidal about that whole area. Birds would fly under my wheels. It was as though all god's creatures wanted me to be their instrument of death. Unsettling.

EDIT: And while we're on the subject of suicidal animals, I have FINALLY figured out the whole Geico squirrel phenomenon. You react to the squirrel, and the squirrel reacts to you. This happens several times a second until one or both of you is dead. The way to handle a squirrel in the road is to slow down and continue straight ahead. As long as you are going slow, the squirrel will gauge your path with incredible accuracy and take perfect evasive action. All you have to do is trust the little bastard. Don't try not to hit him: that's how the accidents happen.

[Cha]

8. I'm glad you're Okay! I've had the same

thing happen here in the Middle of New York State in years past and it's a very shaking experience! :-(

Lucky You and the Deer! :)

[Paragon]

9. Cute and fuzzy deer story

Was walking into my apartment a week or so ago, wrapped up in my own thoughts, when I heard rustling just before my key hits the lock. I look up, and a family of four deer are looking at me, about 30 feet away.

I immediately sit down to let them know I'm not a threat, and they proceed to let me watch them. The two does played and ran around, while mom & dad look around for food.

After about 10 minutes, I slowly get up to go into my apartment to get something for them to eat. I come back down a couple of minutes later with a bag of apples, and poof, they're gone. I leave the bag.

I wake up the next morning to go to work, all that's left is the bag. My little commune with nature, in the middle of the big city. True story.

[scarlet_owl]

10. My mother and sister hit one years ago.

One of the hooves of the deer went through the passenger door where my sister was sitting (it was a Saturn sportscar-made of plastic), and went into my sister's knee. It was the same knee that a sink fell on years before.

[Shakespeare]

11. Wow....contrast posts 4 and 9....

Sad. I think they're graceful, beautiful creatures, and the more we squeeze the size of the wild places (we've already eliminated their natural predators), the more often we'll encounter them on our turf. And who's to blame for that?

on edit: Glad you're okay--car/deer collisions can be nasty, and occasionally fatal.

[Paragon]

12. Agreed

While I had an amazing experience, it saddens me to see them "squeezed", as you put it, into a neighborhood on the north side of Cincinnati. Actually, I'm saddened to see anyone come here. :silly:


On edit of your edit: People I went to high school with had the entire top of their car sheered of by a leaping deer on the freeway. All passengers were OK, obviously the deer was not.

Also had an experience of my own back in Michigan: I'm driving with my buddy in his pickup, and we slow to a stop when we see a doe crossing the road. We slowly start up again, and the startled doe runs itself into the side of the pickup. It was still twitching when we picked it up to move it to the side of the road. We're both surreally covered in blood on our way back home, where we call the highway authority to report the deer. We cancelled the plans we had that night.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

13. Something to remember about deer:

Deer are what are called "edge dwellers". They prosper on the edge of woodlands and development. Lawns, gardens, fruit trees, shrubs...all are tasty and nutritious fodder for deer, ergo they prosper. When they prosper, due to lots of food, they breed. Lots.

Because of this prosperity, we are seeing a return of coyotes in NJ. Not far away, in PA, a family of Grey Wolves were found and moved to Canada. They migrated here, because of the deer.

[Submariner]

14. Those whistle thingys don't always work

"You've got company!"

[Ellen Forradalom]

15. My dad hit one

with my mother and me in the car. He had just gotten a ticket for speeding up the road so when the cops showed up the first question squawked over the radio was, "Was he speeding?"

[Clete]

17. I meant to put post #16 here for everyone.

But again, thanks everyone for sharing. :hug:

[KG]

18. $3500 repair bill

deer will fuck up your car if you hit em at 60mph. :(

[alphafemale]

19. Wow. I was in a car that hit one...once but that was because...

...my mom hesitated one time when I said "STOP! NOW!"

And also the roads were slick with ice. And even then we had slowed enough so that the deer was probably bruised and that's all.

I've got some type of weird deer-dar. I always been able to sense them since I've been a kid and still to this day, even if I'm not the one driving.

I have no idea why this is.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

20. very scarey

I always have that in the back of my mind when I drive...
I saw one dead on the highway this morning on the way to work.
What a waste of a beautiful animal. I hope no one was hurt as well.

[ewagner]

21. What you described

is pretty common here in rural Wisconsin. Here's a few hints:

Troopers recommend AGAINST flashing the headlights. The horn works much better.

The Fall season is he absolute worst for deer because it's mating season and their minds aren't on safety.

Those deer whistles really do work.

If you must drive at night, slow down. Give yourself more reaction time. btw...just after sunset is just about the worst time.

Here......have one on me :beer:

[woofless]

22. I have a serious and well earned phobia

about driving at night. I have hit deer twice, once in my van and once doing 60 on my Moto Guzzi. That last one just about did me in and I hate those "rats with hooves". An before I get all flamed by animal lovers (which I consider myself to be) consider the fact that there are more white-tail deer on this continent than were here when the Pilgrims landed.

[Swede]

23. Always remember when you see a deer on the side of the road,it's

gonna be with three or four more,so slow down even if it's already crossed the road.