Ugh - hit a deer on the way home from work last night

driving down a busy 4 lane secondary road well inside the city limits during commuter hours no less. Really unnerving since I'm just driving along at 50mph and ... out of nowhere ... BAM!!! I never saw it coming and for what was a few seconds but felt like a minute or two I couldn't figure out what had happened until I saw the deer in my rear view mirror on the side of the road.

I see them in my neighborhood at times which was only about a mile or so from where it happened, but never expected something like this on such a busy road at that time of day (around 7pm).

Oh well, at least I have my Novatac 85P on me so I could inspect the damage and evaluate if the car was safe to drive afterwards. It appears to be mostly cosmetic but where it hit it did a job on the right front quarter panel but then cracked, bowed or loosened the bumper, grill, hood and front right fog light/turn signal and headlight assemblies... It didn't appear to damage the radiator which was my initial concern.

Now I get to wait for the insurance company to follow up on the claim I submitted last night online...

Around here at this time of year, the deer seem to be off in their own little world prepping for the winter.

Last week I was driving along a well traveled road and one walked out of the wooded area and stopped by the side of the road. It's amazing how much they blend into their surroundings.

I was able to stop before it possibly stepped onto the road. It then looked at my car, turned around, and walked back into the wooded area.

It is the time to start watching for them. I too would have let down my guard a little in town. I wouldn't expect to have a deer that far away from the woods.

Hope you get your car fixed quickly.

I've hit three deer this year. I have a decent ride but I've just stopped fixing the dents. It's not worth the time to me at this point even though some of the damage is pretty significant. I'm glad it's been in my Yukon Denali or else a couple would have gone through the windshield on a smaller car. Now the deer have moved into the valley for winter so they aren't an issue in the mountains where I live, but perhaps they are even more of a threat since most folk live in the valley. I'm going to try putting on a deer whistle to see if it helps. It seems it was a bumper year here for deer since there were favorable conditions for them recently.

Glad to hear that you are OK, I've seen those whistles you install in the front of the car that are supposed to make an ultrasonic sound when the car is moving to alert wildlife of the presence of the car, do those really work?

I hit a bobcat once at 50 MPH, coming over the crest of a hill. Little guy didn't stand a chance. People would leave cat food out over night and this brought them down from their natural habitats into suburban neighborhoods.

I think my total is up to 7.

I HATE DEER! I quit hunting a few years back because it go too easy but now I am back at it full force to try to knock down the huge numbers of them here.

I think of it as a small public service.

ASAIK the whistles do nothing.

Hit two different deer in the same place on the road in the same place in the car, from the same direction, on two different dates.

Must have been a deer trail.

AlexGT said:

Glad to hear that you are OK, I've seen those whistles you install in the front of the car that are supposed to make an ultrasonic sound when the car is moving to alert wildlife of the presence of the car, do those really work?

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I started installing those whistles on my vehicles about 15 or so years ago after hitting a deer with my new car <24 hours after purchase. A friend in the trucking business told me their fleet's deer accident rate dropped significantly after starting to use them. I don't know whether it's the placebo effect or not, but ever since it always that deer are more aware of my approach. When they do cross in front of my vehicle it's usually well out in front of me and when I see them along the edge of the road, they don't seem to be startled by my approach. They are usually looking at my vehicle. Or I could have just been lucky and the whistles don't do anything. But for less than $10 when I get a new vehicle, it's cheap "insurance" if it is working.

Maybe I should stick deer whistles to my bicycle. My commuting route has lots of deer lately... the record for one trip home is 14 deer. Live ones, that is Fortunately, my helmet light (M20 R2 or DBS) does a great job of illuminating their eyes, a tactic I'll excuse you motorists from trying

At least this didn't happen to your car....

WOW that guy had be be going pretty fast!

Here we go:
"Honey, the car won't start!" "Really? Junior had it out last night and didn't mention anything, I'll just pop the hood and check it out."

Mmm. Nothing better than a hot meal when you're on the road!

Quite a few years ago I asked a NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC or EnCon) officer about whistles. He said he didn't trust them but figured they couldn't hurt from his experience. I put some on the wife's car and was running on a road rally at about 55 mph when a herd got spooked about 150 yards (not feet) off the road. My buddy and I saw them spook but within the next second all we saw were hooves going past the windshield. I think Bill Cosby said it first but whomever was dead right -- first you say it, then you do it, and then you change your shorts. Like I said I didn't depend on the whistles and I have always scanned the side of the road anyway but I am now even more vigilant. Only had one jump into the road since and that was through a thicket. Very minor damage to the vehicle and of course none to the deer, who ran off laughing like Nelson Muntz on the Simpsons ("HA HA!"). Nothing beats keeping your eyes wide open and scanning the roadside all of the time.

There are lots of deer around here (upstate NY -- and so much for the theory that all of NYS is wall to wall skyscrapers). They've changed to hunting regulations and now allow younger hunters to hunt on the ground (no tree stands) as long as they are accompanied by an experienced hunter. Even with that there are still a lot of deer around and I can count on seeing at least 6 or more every single day of the year in the pastures across the road. The number of dead deer along the highways is staggering.

Last note -- many years ago there was a car running a performance rally (cars with roll cages and full harnesses, and running real fast on closed roads) that hit a deer early on in the evening. Since they did not damage the radiator or engine, they kept going. After awhile as they went past people were gagging and had their eyes water. The heat of the radiator continued cooking the raw "tripe" all night long and it was one of the foulest smells I have ever experienced. I can still sense it anytime I see a deer carcass at roadside.

Hey, isn't it time for lunch?

The local car body repair shops do a lot of business pretty much all year long from deer hits. They also do a lot of damage to crops and landscaping around here. So much for people thinking how cute and harmless they are.

Well I'm waiting to hear how much the total repair bill will be, but I suspect it won't be cheap...

Their numbers do appear to be on the rise despite hunting season - I think part of that is fewer people hunt these days, at least around my neck of the woods. And short of that they have few remaining natural predators around here as well.

We have a pretty large whitetail deer population in this area, one of these days I'm going to start hunting again. I work nights, and constantly see fresh deer kill on the freeway, usualy it is from a semi, and they often just keep going. I saw on along side the freeway last night, between the road and a large fence, I honked my horn and it startled it enough to freeze long enough for me to get passed. Whenever I see them in front of me, I'll honk my horn and flash my lights to get their attention. Without something to startle them, they'll often cross the road completely oblivious to what's oncoming. My wife had one hit her a few years ago, she saw it in plenty of time and actually came to a complete stop on the road, but the deer ran into the stationary car anyways.

Black Rose said:

Around here at this time of year, the deer seem to be off in their own little world prepping for the winter.

...snip....

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Actually, they are in their own little world preping for the birth of new deer in the spring - it's RUT time

I drive an 18-wheeler. In the span of 2 days this past week, I must have seen 8 or 10 deer killed on the road. They were really active -- when KG2V says they're in rut, he's absolutely right.

About a year ago, I hit a thousand-pound bull. That tore the truck up pretty good.

I see a lot of deer when I drop my wife off at work and drop the kids at their day care. I installed those deer whistles on our Honda Odyssey and so far so good, knock on wood. I'm constantly keeping my eyes out for deer. They are often out and about during dusk and sunrise.

In addition to rut, at least where I live, the start of deer season with a couple hundred thousand people in the woods with guns seems to stir them up and induce more movement than usual.

NeonLights said:

My wife had one hit her a few years ago, she saw it in plenty of time and actually came to a complete stop on the road, but the deer ran into the stationary car anyways.

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I've never heard of or had it happen stopped, but have been pretty close to having them run into the side of me while driving. Sometimes it appears to be misguided flight. Sometimes it sure looks like they picked "fight" instead of "flight".