Accidental Deer Hunting with your Car

My husband collided with a deer a few years back. We live in Rhode Island. But I think the accident occurred while he was driving in Connecticut.

I've only taken out a fox and a turtle. I felt terrible about both of them, but was glad to know that I don't flinch. I always imagined I'd fly off into the trees to avoid a squirrel at the expense of my family and own limbs. It's some brand of good news to be more ruthless than that, I suppose.

I did kill dozens of frogs once, but that was not my fault. Two in the morning on a semi-rural road in the backwoods of Maryland, and some plague of frogs straight out of Exodus decides to cross the street after a blind curve in the road. I stopped and watched hundreds of frogs blurping across the pavement. There was no break in the wildlife wave and my passengers were pleading with me to go, as we were on the far side a curve on a forty-five mile per hour stretch of dark - at the breatholizer end of a party Saturday.

I waited longer than was safe and just up to the point of mutiny, and then I had to go. I'll never forget the sound of those parallel tracks of frogs popping under the tires. Awful.

Real men hunt from helicopters with fully automatic weapons.

We live in NJ, we've yet to hit a deer ourselves but have had many close calls and you can usually count at least one hit deer for every mile of highway. Years ago, we were driving late at night when a 16 wheeler hit a deer. A red mist of blood covered OUR windshield. Hubby was only 19 at the time, he panicked and in our temporary blindness we almost crashed into the truck.

That said, my husband is a deerhunter (of the bow and arrow variety) The hunting laws/rules are pretty restrictive and the permits can be costly. It's a royal PITA. Incredibly time-consuming and unlike "vehicular hunting"-each deer has to be brought to station to be "tagged", then there's the butchering (either DIY or brought to a butcher-which is expensive) And how much venison can one family eat? It's not so easy to find places to donate the meat to. So maybe we're talking 3 deer per season? Definitely an ineffective way to thin the population.

Though in the deer's defense, I have to admit that NJ is seriously over-developed. We strip away their habitat and where are they supposed to go?

I hit one - well... actually, I didn't hit it, so much as it jumped into my car. I saw the car in front of me swerve to the right, so I thought something was there. I also swerved (onto the empty shoulder, so no one was in any danger) just as something leaped at me. Damn thing jumped into my left rear quarterpanel and bounced off. Ran off into the woods.

When I got home, I didn't want to look at the damage (I was driving a brand new car that I'd had for about 3 weeks) because I remember being in a friend's mother's car when she broadsided a deer and it totalled her car. Fortunately for me, the deer must've just glanced off my car - all it left was a smudge from the oil on its fur.

I agree with JustJess - we pave and build malls, strip malls, and McMansions over every square inch of land. It's only logical that the wildlife that lived in those woods will come into greater human contact. Where else are they supposed to go?

My husband was driving about 65 miles an hour when he hit that deer so you can imagine how much damage it did to the car AND the deer.

It came out of the woods from the right and its appearance was blocked by a truck on the side of the highway. Somebody beeped their horn and that made the deer more nervous, running right onto the highway.

One of the scariest moments in my life: I'm driving to work, going down a winding back road. There is a very sheer bank, and all of a sudden, a deer comes bounding down this incredibly high bank - 8 or 9 feet high - a place you would NEVER imagine a deer thinking... "I think I'll jump down this sheer bank and land on that hard blacktopped surface down there! Just for kicks and giggles!" So here comes the deer. I was so close to it, I swear I could see each and every eyelash on this its face. It bounded into my lane and bounded out. It was a matter of mere milimeters. I was driving a tiny little Honda hatchback on a narrow, windy road. Me and the deer would probably have gone into the afterlife together.

This was in Pleasanton, Ca.

Not yet, I drive at night with high beams except for oncoming traffic specifically so I can see a deer from further away. I'm in rural Georgia and I've seen several on the side of the road, and one was just standing on the dividing line in the MIDDLE of the road. I had to basically stop and blow my horn to get her to move. I was driving a Ford F150 at the time, and if I hadn't stopped her head would have taken out my headlight. Gotta take care of the vehicle you're driving...

Seriously, I now drive an Accord and one of my biggest concerns with driving at night (in addition to drunk drivers - at least I don't contribute to that anymore) is having a deer jump in front of me and come through the windshield. That and listening to Michael Weiner keeps me awake.

Oh and there's this Close Encounter from a police cruiser cam, right in the middle of an urban setting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4CnuXJXhRc

Rhode Island, just like Rhymegirl. I just learned how to drive and no I haven't hit any deer. But sometimes you drive down the road and there's a deer just lying there. All bloody. And police cars and the car that hit the deer.

In a certain town, deer tend to live in the wooded areas. I've seen them jumping around there at night.

i hit a deer when i was about 17.... my incident as well was a case of "that deer just committed suicide on my car"... i SAW it and slowed down to about 25... thought i was all good, and at the Exact moment when the deer could NOT be avoided, it jump in front of my car As i watched it fast enough for me to Not be able to react! It hit, brakes screached, smashed front end... i had the windows of the car down, i heard it skid across the pavement. i didn't even stop.. i was about a mile from home, and i knew my radiator was busted... and knew i could make it without blowing the motor..

The only other incident i know of is this... At Dover AFB, we were coming back from hot cargo, and there is an access road with a 10 foot fence.. well the deer had jumped in and were grazing... we were headed back, and as we drove next to them, they sped up.. we got the truck up to about 20-25+ mph, and as we started to pass them, one was ok, then the one in the lead saw the lights in the perifery of its vision... the ground was damp as it was about 3 am.. it tried to do a zero point turn, and it slipped and at 25 mph it hit the ground with its face and snapped it's own neck on the ground.. we got out and checked on it... it was barly breathing and its neck was all messed up...

we called the MOC and told them to contact animal control... over the radio.. he was like.. "did you hit the deer" we says in reply, "Nope, the deer killed itself on the ground" he replies, "Dunno how that works but sure...." next person on the radio keyed up and screamed "YOU KILLED BAMBI!"

bwhahahaha i'll never forget that, as i Watched it slip and tumble on the ground... killing itself from the pure momentum of it trying to change direction so fast..

slow it down to 55 mph and the deer will just jump out in front of you!! soooo true!!

Jersey Chick said:

I agree with JustJess - we pave and build malls, strip malls, and McMansions over every square inch of land. It's only logical that the wildlife that lived in those woods will come into greater human contact. Where else are they supposed to go?

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Shopping. Duh.

Reminds me of the time I was shopping for my first car. This was in seni-rural Georgia.

The car had two little silvery valve-like things mounted on the front, flanking the grille. I said, "What are those?"

The salesman said, "Deer whistles. When you go above fifty miles an hour, they give off a sound that scares away the deer."

What do they give off if you go below fifty miles? A deer mating call?

When I was four years old, my dad came home one night looking all traumatized (this was in Indiana). He said he hit a deer and told me not to go out to the garage. So guess what I did. The whole front of the car was covered in blood, gore, hair, and gristle. I was totally traumatized and learned an important lesson about listening to my parents.

One of my coaches in high school (in Oregon) totaled her car by hitting an Elk. The elk ran away from the scene!

I used to live at a summer camp in northern california. Out of all the assorted wildlife out there, only the skunks and coyotes liked to jump out in front of cars. Running over a skunk is its own punishment. Gag. (um, yeah, and I feel bad for killing sweet woodland creatures too.) The coyotes look like sad little dirty puppies, so we always managed to avoid hitting them. Driving really slow after dark helped too.

I found out the truth about Santa a little earlier than most kids. Driving home late on Christmas Eve, a deer ran down the hill and smashed into the side of our car. The deer got up and ran away, but my brother and I cried and cried, thinking we killed Rudolph and wouldn't get any presents. So, a very frazzled Mom and Dad took us home in the destroyed car, gave us our presents, and explained about Santa.

We've all hit deer in my family, or had deer run into our vechiles. It's especially bad in rural Maryland in October because of the rut.

I tell my kids to watch the shoulders of the roads when they drive at night. Sometimes your first clue deer are near are the gleaming eyes picked up by a car's headlights. Also, don't brake if you're going to hit a deer! Braking causes the front end of the car to lower and propels the deer over the hood and into the windshield.

But most human fatalities are caused by people swerving and running off the road!

I live in Deer Central, lol. SW Indiana is chock full of them. I've managed not to hit one yet. I do keep a wary eye while driving during prime times (Daybreak and dusk) and try to keep my high beams on as much as possible.

One odd, but mostly effective thing I do to get deer moving when they do the "deer in the headlights" freeze is to flash the high beams on, wait a couple seconds and flash them off. Repeat until the deer move. It seems to get them moving faster.

Illinois did introduce cougars to the southern part of the state, even though they say they didn't. Somebody recently saw one on the sandbar we frequent when we go out on the river.

I've never hit one, but last year on my way home from work at 5:30 in the evening heading down the interstate, one came bounding into the middle lane, going against traffic, mind you. I managed to swerve out of the way, but he hit the SUV behind me, flew into the air, came down hard, and actually went through their windshield. Sprayed the back end of my car with deer blood and entrails and who knows what else. It was horrifying.

There aren't any predators to keep the number of deer down anymore. We need more wolves. (Wouldn't THAT go over well in the suburbs!)

Jersey Chick said:

I agree with JustJess - we pave and build malls, strip malls, and McMansions over every square inch of land. It's only logical that the wildlife that lived in those woods will come into greater human contact. Where else are they supposed to go?

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Morris County, last I checked. Still see them grazing there from time to time.

Never hit a deer, but I've had two close calls. Both were in the dead of night and both times, the damn thing had nearly jumped into my path.