Teen girl dies in freak car-deer-van accident in west Michigan

[marmar]

LOWELL TOWNSHIP — A 17-year-old girl driving with three children when a deer struck by another vehicle was flung into her minivan has been killed in west Michigan.

Michigan State Police tell the Grand Rapids Press that Barbara June Barnick of Ionia died following the crash that happened about 5:20 p.m. Sunday in Lowell Township. They said Barnick’s 14-year-old nephew was a front seat passenger, and 1-year-old and 9-year-old children were in the back seat.

Police said the children were wearing seatbelts and none suffered life-threatening injuries.

Police said a car passing in an eastbound lane struck a deer, which was flung across the road and onto Barnick’s 2008 Chrysler Town and Country. Her vehicle crossed went off the road and hit a tree.

http://www.freep.com/article/20101122/NEWS06/101122008/Girl-17-dies-after-deer-thrown-onto-minivan#ixzz163A9E1QH

[Raven]

1. Deer are very dangerous this time of year. They are mating and

they are being hunted. Usually they will pause before they cross a road but not always...especially if they are being hunted or following a prospective mate. Such a sad story.

[piratebay]

2. They pause before crossing?

Do they look both ways too? Hell, we even put up special Deer X-Ing signs for them and the vermin don't heed them.

[Barack_America]

3. Tragic accidents involving deer are sadly anything but "freak".

My husband and I were driving a lot last week and when the sun started to set, that's it, we were off the road. We saw hundreds of dead deer on the side of the road during our travels. Came home to a patient that had a deer go into her windshield and break just about every bone in her face.

The rut is a dangerous time to drive, particularly at dusk and dawn.

[GSLevel9]

4. that's what I've heard...

not much that can be done... maybe drive slower but I can't think of a solution.

[jancantor]

7. Correct. Stats don't lie

More people die from deer (striking them with cars) than any other animal... humans excepted :)

[petronius]

17. I think the 'freak' part of it was that she was hit by a flying deer that had been struck

by another car. My first reaction was like yours - "What's so odd about that?" - but this one does seem a bit uncommon. Poor girl, and really tough for the other kids in the car...

[LiberalEsto]

5. The first sentence is written poorly

I apologize in advance for veering off-topic, but the English major inside me is anxious to be heard.

This is not a good lead sentence for a news story.

"A 17-year-old girl driving with three children when a deer struck by another vehicle was flung into her minivan has been killed in west Michigan."

Better:

A 17-year-old girl driving with three children died when a deer struck by another vehicle landed in her minivan in west Michigan.

A writer shouldn't separate the sentence subject (girl) from the verb (was killed) by so many phrases. I'd replace "was killed" with "died" to make the sentence shorter. In addition, I'd avoid "was flung" and replace it with "landed."

That said, I'm very sorry for the poor girl.Deer overpopulation is a problem in many areas of the country, including my own. It's particularly terrifying driving at night on an icy road when deer pop out of nowhere into the path of your car.

[louis-t]

6. It was very difficult to read that first sentence.

Mainly because of the content, but also because of the grammar.

[marmar]

8. It's AP, so I'm assuming it's from one of those small papers in a small town.

Might explain the poor writing quality.

[LiberalEsto]

10. Probably

Small-town reporters don't get paid much. I used to get 25 cents per column inch when I first worked as a stringer in 1968.

[marmar]

12. Yikes. ..... I got paid by the column inch at my college paper. ......

but a lot more than 25 cents per.

[Old and In the Way]

9. We see them on the side of the road a lot this time of year, particularly at early evening.

Such a sad story....something that lots of parents with kids worry about in rural areas where deer are a common sight along the roads.

In November 2007, I leased a new car....I hit a deer 3 hours later. :-( I came around a bend and it was crossing from my left. Braked hard and steered towards the right edge of the road, but it kept walking oblivious to me and I still banged it on the way past. Broke the headlamp frame and dinged the door hard. I stopped and put my flashers on...the deer was lying in the middle of the road and I told my son we needed to move it off the road, so no one else would hit it again. As soon as we got to it, it got up, still stunned. For a couple of minutes it just stood there...then regained its senses and bolted away. About a minute later, a local cop comes by and stops to find out what happened....had to explain that my evidence had left the seen of the accident.

[sarcasmo]

11. Headline should be changed there is nothing freaky about this in our neck of the woods.

Kent county which is one county east of me has the highest car/deer accident ration in the state of Michigan.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. I saw this exact thing happen once.

Luckily, no one was killed in that incident.

I was southbound when a northbound car hit a deer, went off the east shoulder through the ditch, through the brush and back onto the roadway behind me. The car in front of me braked to an immediate stop so I passed that car to pull off and render assistance to the car that had gone in the ditch.

It was only as I was jogging past the car which had been in front of me when I understood what had happened - the screaming girls in the car were covered with glass and deer poop and the deer was still embedded in *their* windshield. It had bounced off car #1 onto the windshield of car #2.

[Nikia]

14. There's probably 5-10 reported deer/car accidents in our county per week

I'm not sure when the last fatal one was, but there's always that potential. We witnessed one a couple of years ago that would have probably been fatal if they weren't wearing their seatbelts. After hitting the deer, the car flew across the road and landed upside down in a yard past the opposite lane.
So far, I have avoided hitting deer although there were some close calls. There is a small herd that runs across the road that I drive on to go to work.

[applegrove]

15. A deer ran in front of my car last week. I think she waited until my headlights lit

up the parkway and then she jumped right in front of me.

[jberryhill]

16. Did the freak escape unharmed?

I see what happened to the deer, the car and the van in the story, but what about the freak?

Us freaks care about one another.

[kimi]

18. How very sad

I read recently that 150 deaths a year are attributed to deer vs car accidents. I was surprised that it's not higher, really. But how awful for this young lady's family and those she was with.

Deer seem to be most active this time of year, I've noticed a lot of carcasses at the side of the road. Deer carcasses, that is. Almost had family victims a few weeks ago when a deer hit them in rural Iowa - totalled the car but no one was hurt. The deer was put down at the scene, though.

This is a sad story. Bless her heart. RIP.