A Reminder To Simply Hit The Dumb Deer

[Brody]

I saw this on another forum (pretty good tech site, too, BTW) and was reminded of a very similar 'avoid the little Darwin Deer' accident that I had that resulted in a very nice F150 I had that got totaled. Those (there were three of the little bastards) were the last deer...or for that matter, pretty much anything smaller than my rig...aside from people...that I have ever tried to avoid. My accident was in the mid 80s. Roughly the same scenario.

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=136861

This should also serve as a big reminder that roll cages are pretty damn important. That F150 was the very last 4x4 I owned that I didn't do a full internal or external cage on. Nothing like being upside down in the near dark, hearing your fuel pump merrily running, smelling gas, and hearing sounds of electrical shorts coming from the engine bay....and then realizing that you had a very small area left that you could actually crawl out of. Hell, I figured that I was going to burn to death on some dirt road. Didn't much care for the feeling, didn't get too excited either, just tried to do my best to get out of the truck before it sparked off.

[Heather]

Figures it was in Michigan. My dad hit two deer at the same time with his 914 one year. So glad the guy was okay.

[Popsgarage]

Oncoming car would have gotten run the f*** over!!!!!!

[EldoradoFJ60]

There is a reason no one shows up for school on opening day in Michigan. Whitetails are a goddamn menace.

These stats are 10 years old. But still gives you an idea.

In 2001, there were 66,993 crashes, up 3 percent from the year before. Forty-four percent of the crashes occurred in the October-December period. Due to unreported crashes, he said, the actual figure is pegged at closer to 80,000.

Crashes also are prevalent in spring when deer seek out the first green grass near highways. Since 1991, state car-deer crashes have risen 39 percent. Michigan’s annual total represents nearly half of all reported car-deer crashes in five Midwestern states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.


Eleven Michigan motorists were killed and 2,109 persons were injured in 2001, compared to eight deer-related crash deaths and a similar number of injuries in 2000.

“That means on average there are 184 crashes a day, one every eight minutes, all year long,

[mattzj98]

We hit a deer doing 60 on the road between buena vista and salina. There was a few of them and they decided to cross the street right in front of us. Didn't even have the time to swerve soo... Matt 1 deer 0. It cost my car a new hood, bumper, a headlight and a windshield. I was able to drrive away from that. Could've been ugly if there were other cars around

[Chris]

Also remember to NOT hit your brakes causing the nose to dive and bring the deer through your windshield. Hit the brakes until close to impact than release to raise your nose by accelerating. Standard driving technique taught in Minnesota. I knew a woman whose father was killed when the deer he hit ended up inside the car, still alive and kicking (literally) and killed her father by repeatedly kicking to escape while his injured wife watched.

[Popsgarage]

Good advise, Chris! Not everybody knows that one.

[Brody]

Good thing we don't live in Canada. Moose encounters account for more road deaths and accident s than anything else.

I have hit at least 5 deer since I rolled that truck trying to avoid them. To hell with slowing down, fancy brake/acceleration. You usually don't have time. I simply nailed the dumb bastards that Darwined out in front of my heap. One I bounced clear off the road and that got up and ran away. Three I had to go back and finish with whatever was at hand. One I killed outright. I had a big freezer, I would have butchered them on the spot. I don't/didn't and figured foxes and other carnivores have to eat, too, so I just drug them off to the side of the road.

[glacierpaul]

I have had a few close calls, living in the hills gets you more used to this. I knew a couple guy's that both died from being impaled via the antlers thru the windsheild in a deer collision, both happened out near Elizabeth. When I lived out in Elizabeth years ago, I was coming home on my then new motorcycle, had a porcupine come onto the road, I was already going too fast, and grabbed the handlebars tight, just missed the thing thankfully. Was shaking the rest of the way home, thinking, wow I was almost done in by a critter(and myself for speeding).

[Brody]

When we drive at night coming back from climbing stuff it is on a lot of windy two lane roads. These are about the only time I really want driving lights as they light up the road a long way. I usually drive down the center of the road with my brights on and have the other person in the front seat on 'deer alert' looking for eyeballs. I want that couple of seconds time frame before the deer decides that MY rig is THE rig that it wants to throw itself in front of.

Hunter S Thompson summed it up pretty well when he described jackrabbits. The same can be said for deer:

“People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, ****, sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenalin rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72

[glacierpaul]

Great book, awesome movie, one of Depp's best.

[SCRubicon]

I've seen that Tracker before. I want to say it was featured in one of the "buy our junk" magazines 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers puts out. I almost had a full speed head on collision with a guy driving a Subaru wagon because he swerved into my lane to avoid a deer. Highway 285 in Pine by the Rainbow Roundup Trout Ranch. I had the 35's and boner bar at the time. It was a kiss the world goodbye moment...

One thing that really chaps my hide is when people slam on their brakes for the filthy crap machine geese. The kicker - no horn. The jack wagons just sit there and watch the goose waddle it's sweet time across the road. Yeah, it's a life. A life that I'm not trading my life or quality of life for. This seems to happen a lot up on Union between 6th and Alameda.

[Brody]

Geese would get drained on the spot and become food. Tough shitski, birdie.

I have to say that one of the things that I really like about the exo is if something smaller than my heap sails into my lane, well, hell, too damn bad. I have my seat belt on, the right of way, and am about as well protected as I can get. I seldom get in the way of Darwin if I have the option....

[Pathrat]

Thanks for the reminders everyone. On two lane roads up here at night, especially on Indiana, I keep watch for the red glowing eyes of deer waiting to do something regrettable.

[Hypoid]

I usually drive down the center of the road with my brights on
That was you!!! :D

Mountian driving 101:
If you are on a mountian road, and have to chose between a head-on collision and running off the road, TAKE THE HEAD-ON!
1) If you hit the other vehicle head-on, both vehicles will be stopped. The next person that comes along will find the wreck and report it.
2) If you let that other ******* run you off the road, you may well find yourself accelerating at the rate of 32 Feet/second/second, reducing your chances for survival.
a) The ******* that forced you off the road is not likely to report that he caused an accident.
b) Passers-by are not likely to find your vehicle for hours, days, or longer if it is down the side of a mountian.

When my pops taught me moutain driving 35 years ago, we didn't have the impact absorbing vehicles that are on the roads now. His contention was that the chances of survival are improved if you stop that other driver in your lane.