Anyone Else Ever Hit a Deer?

[cruisin]

Why shouldn't you swerve? I've heard that if you hit a deer it can flip up and go through your windshield. Is that true?

Swerving can cause a different accident, as others have mentioned - hitting a guardrail or another (possibly oncoming) car. But you are right that the deer can flip up through the windshield. I know of a family near hear who was driving through the Jockey Hollow reservation - the Mom was driving and had her two kids in the back seat and her son's friend was in the front passenger seat. A deer came running out of the woods toward her car. The deer tried to jump over the car and went through the windshield, both the mother and the friend were killed. The two kids in the back were injured, but not badly.

I have tapped a deer, no real damage to my car or the deer. My husband hit a deer a few weeks ago, the deer went down but then got up and ran off. Big damage to the car.

Thank goodness all of you who have had an experience hitting a deer are okay. It could be so much worse.

Here's a crazy story: In September (I was away and didn't see it, thankfully) my family found a deer in our back yard that had an arrow in its back end. It must have been hit and able to run away, but later died. The township would not come and take it away, they only remove animals if they are on public property. They said we could drag it to the street, but no one was about to touch it. We paid someone to come and take it away.

They are all over the place here. And they are causing more and more accidents as they become less frightened by humans and cars. I have pulled into my driveway and found 20-25 deer at the bottom, they just stand there and look at me. They don't even move until I get about a foot away and beep my horn. I don't want to open the garage door with them so close, I'm afraid one will go in and then I'll have a mess.

[jadingirl]

My friend Cam hit a deer years ago (pre-cell phones) outside of Perth Ontario. He totaled his car but was okay.

But the weirdest part of what happened is while he is standing there dazed from hitting the deer a big guy in a pickup pulls up. The guy asks Cam if he's okay - Cam dazedly replies yes. Then the guy asks Cam if he wants the deer Cam looks at him like "what?" and says no. So the guy drags the deer to his pickup up throws it in the back and takes off leaving poor Cam alone in the woods with a totaled car!

[cruisin]

My friend Cam hit a deer years ago (pre-cell phones) outside of Perth Ontario. He totaled his car but was okay.

But the weirdest part of what happened is while he is standing there dazed from hitting the deer a big guy in a pickup pulls up. The guy asks Cam if he's okay - Cam dazedly replies yes. Then the guy asks Cam if he wants the deer Cam looks at him like "what?" and says no. So the guy drags the deer to his pickup up throws it in the back and takes off leaving poor Cam alone in the woods with a totaled car!

The guy probably wanted the deer meat, but he left your friend there! How awful!

[NancyNC]

We call them "rats on stilts."

We call them "rats with antlers". I feel somewhat guilty doing it, because when they are standing still under a moonlit sky they are quite beautiful.

[Nan]

We call them "yummy!"

[bobalina77]

Last spring I hit a deer.. it was like a weird simpsons episode the deer came across the road in slow motion and I froze didn't know what to do so did nothing.. clipped its back end and it flew in the air and my front end was totaled.. i didn't break or swerve or anything but just was totally memorized by the deer as it 'pranced; before me..

Lucky with my insurance (Canada) your not dinged for hitting a deer.. so was all covered.. including car rental So overall not that bad of an experience.. except for the bits of fur in the front of my car that was kinda sad

Yep they cover you if you hit the deer.. but as my brother found out they ding you if you swerve. He's had quite a few accidents over the years.. none of which were deemed his fault except this most recent one when he swerved to miss a deer. Oh well.. now he knows

[Lucy25]

None so far for me (knock on wood) but it's fairly common where I live. My dad has hit two deer and one cow.

Ok, I'll bite, how the heck did he hit a cow?? Deer I can see because they dart so fast out in front of the cars. But a cow?

[Lara]

Several years ago, my daughter hit three in one year. She was travelling through prime deer breeding territory on her way to and from work, in the middle of the times the deer were moving the most.



Oddly enough, after hitting the second deer, the state police told her that she should never try to slow down or stop. Reducing your speed, he said, made it more likely the deer would go through your windshield instead of over the top of your car.

A good friend almost died when a deer went through his windshield. The deer landed in the cab of his truck and it thrashed with its hooves and antlers so much, it cut the guy to ribbons.

That's freaky! And worrisome since when I took my couple of refresher driving lessons the instructor warned me about deer (Delaware County PA). There's a sign on the way to work attesting to that. He told me not to swerve and the roads are pretty winding so it likely would cause a worse accident. But I'm so short and sit *very* close up to the windshield. Eek. Would rather have not read the thread LOL. If it ever happens I hope I'm hit by the deer like Rory on Gilmore Girls.

[ice dance]

Ok, I'll bite, how the heck did he hit a cow?? Deer I can see because they dart so fast out in front of the cars. But a cow?

Maybe he hit it at night. Black or dark coloured cows are nearly impossible to see in the dark. A few months ago I found a dead cow on the roadside that a neighbour had hit in the middle of the night. There'd been a bunch of cows get loose from a farm further down the road and come wandering up past our place. Lucky nobody got injured, just one car damaged, and one cow dead and another injured.

[GaPeach]

I slammed on the brakes and screamed, "Move, OMG! MOVE!", he didn't. 200lbs deer v.s. Sundance. Both Sundance and the deer lost. I won--I was wearing my seatbelt and the air bag exploded. I was left bruised and felt like I went a few rounds with Tyson, but he didn't come thru my windshield! I hate deers. My only car accident.

[Anjelica]

I hit a deer last year; it was night time and the deer just suddenly jumped out into the road right in front of me; I didn't even have time to swerve or put on the brakes it happened so fast. I was going about 60mp and the deer went flying into the air and across the hood of my car. Fortunately for me I was driving my Buick Regal, a tank of a car and I barely felt a bump! The hood of my car was a mess and had to be replaced, one headlight was put out and the other was shining on the ground and I could barely see to drive the rest of the way home. Messed up the body of my car and was a truly scary experience. I think if I had been driving a lighter car I would have totalled both it and myself.

[skatemommy]

Darn things have eaten all my Hostas out of my yard. I can see their beady eyes at night and drive slow. We have had 2 motorcyclists in our small town killed this year when they have hit a deer coming out of the woods. Swerve - no way when the roads are icy. NO WAY.

[cruisin]

Just want to say, again, to all of you who have been involved in deer accidents - thank goodness you are here to talk about it.

[skatak]

I was leaving a New Year's "party" with friends (actually, we were only three and ate a simple yet great dinner). Was on the road in the middle of the night, down in France country side. as I was leaving the (small) town, a deer got caught in my car' lights. I was going really slow, so I even slowed down. He (or she, lol) kept walking in front of me, and me driving slowly behind him. was kinda of special.
after a while I decided it won't last all night, so I switched the ligths of the car off. the deer swerved and hit my rear bumper (mildly) and disappeared. I think he did ok, not traces left on the car.

so, not really a deer accident, rather a 'deer encounter by car'.

[Karina1974]

Would rather have not read the thread LOL.

You and me both. I have another trip planned for December 18 to drive to Lenox, MA from where I live in Eastern NY State, and unfortunately for me the highway takes me too far out of the way for where I live and where I am driving to, not to mention our gas prices are up in the $3.20 range again, so I wind up on the back roads. I already have seen 3 deer along Route 66, and 2 of those were running across the road in front of my car at 12:30 AM back in August... luckily I was only going 40, because if I had been going the 55 MPH speed limit I definitely would have hit one of them.

I'm glad I don't plan to go out there again until April, when it will still be daylight when I leave for the function I am attending at 7:00 PM.

[Lizziebeth]

The first time I hit a deer it just came out of the woods in front of me and I hardly had time to brake. The airbag did not go off and I wasn't hurt. Car had lots of damage but insurance paid to fix it. I called the sheriff office and they basically said not to bother reporting it as long as I wasn't hurt

Three years later almost to the day, I had a similar deer collision on the same road. This time I put on the brakes but I hit that deer broadside. My poor car was three years older and the insurance company decided it was not worth repairing and totalled it. It was a Subaru - and I credit it for keeping ME from being injured.

My insurance covers these types of accidents without the collision deductible and does not charge them against your driving record. If you take evasive action and miss the deer and bang up your car, you will pay the deductible and get charged with an accident. I think it is only natural to try to avoid hitting the deer - many times it is impossible because they step right in front of the car.

I absolutely never drive on that road any more at dusk or later. It is in the city limits and deer are everywhere and there is no hunting to keep the population in check.

[NinjaTurtles]

What part of Upstate were you from? All of my deer sightings seem to take place in rural Rensselaer County, on my drives to or from Lenox, MA. But I've seen a deer walking across the street in Latham, NY which is a suburban area, and my brother hit one in Niskayuna, which is also a suburb, late on Christmas Eve some years back. He and Dad ended up gutting this thing in my parents' backyard, and all we would have needed was for some little kid to be poking his head out the window and seeing them "killing Santa's reindeer."

A VERY rural part of the Mohawk Valley (Oneida/Madison county); lots of forest and the deer love to raid the farms.

It's the type of area with lots of warning deer xing signs (with bullet holes in the silhouette deer image)

[Erin]

Ok, I'll bite, how the heck did he hit a cow?? Deer I can see because they dart so fast out in front of the cars. But a cow?

Maybe he hit it at night. Black or dark coloured cows are nearly impossible to see in the dark.

Yes, it was at night on a low-traffic highway, other than that I don't know a lot of details. I was 7 or 8 at the time and the main thing I remember is my mom bundling up the three of us late at night to drive an over an hour to pick him up.

[nlyoung]

I just missed hitting a momma moose and her baby a couple of years ago. Even the baby was HUGE!

[Moto Guzzi]

My parents hit a deer years ago. My mother described it as a large buck intent on suicide; it jumped out of the woods directly in front of their car. Fortunately, they weren't hurt although the car was a mess and the deer was killed.

My sister and I went home for Christmas one year and flew into an airport about three hours from my parents' house and an hour from my brother's. My mother asked us to stop by his house on our drive from the airport and get all the deer meat he had in his freezer. While we were gathering up the meat, she called to warn us to watch out for deer on the highway. She called again right before we left to warn us again and called again while we were on the road.

She had us so paranoid about hitting a deer that we drove extremely cautiously the whole way. My sister and I had visions of us hitting one and being found strewn along the highway with the dead deer and the packages of frozen deer meat. As it turned out, we didn't see any deer at all.