Oh Deer

Close call last night! Driving home from a gathering, a doe leapt the guardrail in front of me and sprinted into the path of the car. At 60 miles per hour I slammed into full ABS mode and took extreme evasive action, using all of the opposite lane (no oncoming traffic, fortunately) and going into a four-wheel skid first in one direction in the other—and then neatly recovered. I essentially drove around where the deer was about to be, at sixty miles an hour.

I felt pretty proud of myself afterward. I didn't panic, I reacted instantly, the car performed well, and I performed well. I didn't touch the deer, which was fairly amazing considering she leapt directly into the car's path and left very little room to maneuver.

I've learned to be alert for deer on the road at dusk and twilight.

And you know what I was thinking? That the image of the deer suspended in midair above the guardrail in the light of the brights over the right front fender of the car was a picture. It looked really neat. I can see it right now in my mind's eye.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Bill McFadden: "Nice job driving. My uncle who was encyclopedic about 'the outdoors' taught me that where there is one deer, there will almost always be more following. His lesson paid off one night on my way from Wilkes-Barre to Elmira. I slowed for a deer crossing ahead and the impatient driver who passed me hit the second deer at 60 mph. That picture is still in my neural archives 65 years later."

Nick Van Zanten: "In Michigan, it's always a good idea to drive with a doe permit handy, that way, if you were careful you can eat her. Odds are pretty good (one in 80) that you will collide with one. I got mine a couple of years ago, but the guys in the truck behind me had the doe tag. Sheesh! I got the $1,500 body shop bill."

Mike replies: I don't want a body shop bill, and bully for the dudes in the pickup, but, speaking just for myself, tick-infested roadkill does not appeal as dinner!  :-)

Steve Rosenblum: "I'm very glad that you and the deer ended up unhurt. However, despite your pride in your reactions and response, what you did was unwise. According to law enforcement and natural resources folks, swerving to avoid hitting a deer is much more dangerous than hitting the deer if you can't stop in time. If you swerve the chances that you will lose control of your car and hit a tree, another car, or end up upside down in a ditch are higher than if you hit the deer and stay in your lane. If you Google 'What to do if you're about to hit a deer with your car' you will find numerous postings from official sources supporting this approach.

"A relative of mine was driving home at dusk from fishing on the Madison River in Montana when an elk jumped up on the road in front of his car and he did what you did. He ended up swerving off the road, rolling down an embankment, and hanging by his seatbelt upside down in his (now completely totaled) rental car. Fortunately, outside of having to extract some pieces of shattered windshield glass from his skin he was OK. He doesn't do that anymore."

Mike replies: Thanks for the information, but—well, it was a reaction, not a thoughtful, considered strategy. And being who I am, I'm also thinking about the deer, not just myself, and I doubt I can relearn that. At least not on the gut-reaction level.

However, thinking back on it, I think I applied pressure to the brakes incrementally (though quickly), because my long-ago driver's training was to not slam on the brakes because of the risk of going into a skid. So one thing I'm going to do is practice panic stops a few times. The local speed limit is 55 MPH, even on winding, hilly two-lane roads, and most people drive 60–65 MPH or even faster. I usually set the cruise control for roughly 62 or 63 MPH. Driving that speed, when no one's in sight, I'm going to practice slamming on the brakes a few times. I need to retrain myself to let ABS keep me from skidding and stop the car as quickly as possible.

And by the way, last night the wildlife I encountered was a fox kit that was checking out some roadkill on the centerline. I saw the reflections of his eyes from far away, and was driving slowly by the time I came up on him.

Jim A.: "This is one of the few concerns I have when riding my beloved motorcycle. Even though I live in a state where this sort of accident is a rarity, I always keep an eye peeled. Here are some interesting insurance stats on the likelihood of collision with deer for each state."

Comments

[Dave Levingston]

I dislike deer. I call them giant wood rats. They are destructive and cause far too many accidents. I've killed two with my pick-up truck. One was on the way to a shoot before dawn on a rural two-lane road in Western Nebraska. It took out the radiator. Fortunately I had a cell phone signal and after several hours a tow arrived. I was stranded in Alliance, Nebraska for three days waiting for parts. But, at least I was able to rent a car and go do the photo I was after on one of the mornings while I was stranded.

Another time I also saw a photo in the midst of a deer situation. I was on a four-lane road in the right lane. A car ahead of me in the left lane hit a deer when it jumped directly in front of him from the median. The impact launched the deer at least 30 feet into the air. It passed directly over my car as I watched it through the glass sunroof. Now that would have been a photo...

[Ken Tanaka]

Glad you (and the deer) are ok. Very scary.

Regarding the image of the scene, the Internet has already been there (mostly): https://goo.gl/images/P1SzLp

[Benjamin Marks]

Glad you are OK Mike. I heard somewhere that deer collisions are the leading cause of U.S. animal-related deaths. Couldn't find the support at the CDC's website, but I can believe it. I had a similar experience to yours about ten years ago. I have to say, my driving skills were on "full auto" as I can't tell you how I knew to swerve right, then left, in the way that I did, only that I avoided any impact and was happy at the time that I had both hands on the wheel. 10-and-12, folks. 10-and-12.

[Bryce Lee]

In reference to your leaping Bambi:
Bubba. The tailgate!

Getting to work on New Years day is something railroaders do all too often. So, I found my self on a westbound grain train on New years Day 2017, leaving the home terminal right about 01:00. Rolling along we approached a county road crossing around 03:00. when a pickup raced across the track in front of us when we were about a quarter mile away. Then, after about a hundred feet or so, the truck stops, turns around and starts back toward the tracks. Now, the conductor and I are of course focused on the truck. What is he going to do? I am blowing the whistle over and over and we get to the crossing the same time the truck does. At the last second, I look in front of me and here laying on the crossing planks is a large, dead whitetail buck, antlers and all. WHAM, we hit the deer and hear it reduced to mush under the engine. The conductor is still looking at the truck so the sound of the collision with the deer scares the daylights out of him. It took a while to figure out, but obviously the guy(s) in the truck had been poaching deer with a spotlight, had shot this big deer, put it in the back of the truck and did not raise the tailgate. When they raced over the tracks, the deer bounced out of the truck right in front of us. The poachers got to the crossing just in time to see the deer get hit.
I called Ministry of Natural Resources about it, they thought it kind of funny but wanted to know if we could identify the truck which was not possible due to the darkness. So, the poachers got their year off to a bad start, as did the deer.

[David Miller]

Adrenalin is known to be a more effective fixative than hypo and faster-acting than ammonium thiosulfate.

I'm glad everyone survived uninjured.

[Stan B.]

Well done! Glad you avoided A Straight Story scenario- just watch out for ticks...

[Dave Van de Mark]

Where I’ve lived now for 55 years, there is a lot of remote mountainous terrain and deer. Once one is used to curvy roads with little traffic, the peddle is always closer to the metal than it should be! I tell friends I have never hit a deer yet (true) but I’ve “trimmed a few toenails” :-)

[Tom Basista]

To date I have taken out four deer with my vehicles. I have had several near misses. One thing I have learned, if you have time aim for the deer. It will be gone by the time you get there. BTW, I have a great recipe for something called Bambi Bliss.

[David Lee]

Michael Loeb!

[MikeR]

Evasive driving classes? Coaching in 4 wheel drift by an F1 driver? Please tell.

[Douglas Chadwick]

Glad it worked out for you. But statistically speaking you should not try to avoid deer, just moderate braking and drive straight. If you drive a truck or SUV in the rare instances when you actually hit a deer there will be damage, but usually not a lot. In a sedan the damage is quite rare and quite minor. I have hit or been hit by many, over a dozen, I've lost count. And the misses must run into the hundreds if not thousands.

Tom Basista is right, they are usually gone by the time you get to the spot, and many people crash trying to avoid the deer.

[JG]

Be thankful you weren't riding the motorcycle you'd like to have...

[mark jennings]

If you ride a motorcycle in the country and some other places, you think about deer.

[Michael Mejia]

Well...which camera did you have with you?

[Peter Barnes]

Quite a few people I know have rolled their vehicles and suffered significant injuries avoiding kangaroos and cattle on Australian dirt roads. Better to hit the brakes as hard as you can (ABS is great), stay straight and reduce speed until it is safe to drive around. And of course reduced speed at dusk and night when animals are active and visibility poor is a key safety factor.

[Mani Sitaraman]

Glad that your driving reflexes kicked in and you are safe, Mike.

I'm reminded of this commercial. Very slightly NSFW.

https://youtu.be/cHklkJWe-LE

[Dan Khong]

Mike

In the USA, you have deer that you hope not to knock into because they can damage the car.

In Australia, the Aussies have kangaroos that they hope not to knock into because the "roos" are tough as nails and can greatly damage the car. They install "roo bars" as precautions.

Deers or kangaroos, they are merely trotting and hopping around in their ancestral territories according to their directional instincts inbred into them.

Dan K.

[Which in the case of deer align very poorly with our recent priorities, since they tend to freeze when a predator/car approaches, hoping to remain invisible, and then panic and flee at the last minute when the predator/car keeps coming at them anyway. They don't grok roads and cars, and who can blame them? Another few thousand years of evolution and they'll be better prepared to deal with oncoming Acuras, which, despite the occasional Bubba with a doe tag, don't actually want to eat them. --Mike]

[Maggie Osterberg]

This is why people drive Miatas. So they know how to drive!

Well done, Mike! Glad you and the deer are OK.

[jt]

I was not surprised to see my state near the top on that insurance list. A colleague of mine once hit two within a week. I hit my first this spring, at dusk on an icy road. I'm glad I didn't try to steer around it in those conditions.

It wasn't a new car, but it was new to me. It's a little embarrassing to drop your car off at the body shop with the temporary dealer license still taped to the window.

[Earl Dunbar]

Even in our city and suburban neighbourhoods in our area, I have to be careful. People who don't know New York state subconsciously think of NYC; they don't realize that most of New York is rural and not especially densely populated.

Often coming home in the evening or late at night, when I cross the arterial street onto my road, I see deer roaming in the street or crossing. I've not had a near miss as close as yours, but it's been startling a couple of times. I've learned to take it easy and not worry about getting into a warm bed.

[Paul Byrnes]

Living in Australia, kangaroos are always a danger at dusk in the countryside aka 'the bush'. I was out recently on my moto sickle at dusk near Crookwell (which as a name is almost a joke in itself, as crook is Australian slang for feeling il) and was acutely aware of the danger I put myself in by being on a bike in that environment. Luckily, no roo decided to suicide that night but the thought of hitting one at even 60kms is too horrible to contemplate - especially for me. You stand a good chance in a car, but on a bike it would be messy. Eastern greys can get fairly large. Deer are not usually a problem here, although we have most everything else that can kill you. Well done Mike in saving both lives.