# Deer in the headlights! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 31, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891 "2003-12-31T04:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![barb\_b](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@barb\_b](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barb_b)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/21 "2004-01-01T14:23:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by unclviny \* > \*\*sped up to 93 MPH (snip) and was reading something > \*\* I just have to ask! What in the world were you reading at 93 mph? And **why**? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/22 "2004-01-01T15:26:31Z")
I’m not sure it’s the deer you have to watch out for, ETF. In your area, the [telephone poles](http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/12/19/man_dies_after_crashing_into_telephone_pole/) are more deadly. Nearest I ever came to a car vs. creature smackdown was many years ago when I was driving my Datsun down a notoriously curvy road on a dark, wet night. I saw a very faint white patch in front of me and braked on the better safe than sorry principle. It turned out to be a [Holstein cow](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.usda.gov/oc/photo/b95c2368.jpg), moseying along the center line almost invisible against the wet road. In the game of momentum vs inertia, both of us would have lost. Out of public spirit, I stopped at the first phone and called the local police to let them know there was a stray. The cop asked where I was calling from and I said “The Golden Eagle Pub”. You could \* hear \* him lose interest – he probably thought I was playing a prank. I just hope no one else encountered Elsie that night. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/23 "2004-01-01T17:23:47Z")
> [@](#): > > **by Finagle:** > I’m not sure it’s the deer you have to watch out for, ETF. In your area, the telephone poles are more deadly. Oh, yeh, we have notoriously vicious telephone poles in this area. Seems like on every road you take, there’s a tattered roadside shrine to the victims of timber tantrums. I really hate peeper season – not for the tiny frogs’ nightly chorus, no; that’s charming. But one of their poolward migration routes is across a road I frequent, and it really bothers me to squish them. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/24 "2004-01-01T21:31:34Z")
I live in southeast Kansas, The Land of a Million Gravel Roads. This place is absolutely teeming with deer. During the rut season (mating season), the bucks will chase a doe right across the highway, right into oncoming traffic - they’re oblivious. Thankfully I haven’t hit a deer, but I got the crap scared out of me when I was driving home from a party one night. Standing at the side of the road was the most massive deer I have ever seen! If that thing would have taken one little step forward, it would have gotten clobbered. _SIDE NOTE_ Don’t brake for deer! You’re gonna be much safer if you just hit the damn thing, I promise you. My mother showed me a car that belonged to a friend of hers that was in a salvage yard because - get this - she slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a deer. The car flipped end over end 3 or 4 times, and the entire passengers side was crumpled. If someone had been in the passenger’s seat theres no way they would have survived. To make it more scary, the car was the exact same model and year as my car. ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/25 "2004-01-01T21:34:18Z")
Ack. ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/26 "2004-01-01T21:35:56Z")
Barb, Since I was used to this road and I almost never saw anyone else on it I was very comfortable on this stretch of road I took the opportunity to look at some work related stuff (dumb?, yes). unclviny (who is getting in the truck in the morning and heading for California) unclviny ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/27 "2004-01-01T21:43:10Z")
A quite surreal experience: while stopped at a light in broad daylight at a very busy suburban intersection, in an instant and completely out of the blue my car was surrounded by deer. What in the world does one do in such a situation? ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/28 "2004-01-01T21:53:07Z")
**Lorenzo** - one would hope they had their camera handy! **ETF** - it must have been one of Santa’s reindeer, on vacation. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/29 "2004-01-01T22:19:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blonde \* > \*\ ***Lorenzo** - one would hope they had their camera handy! > > \*\* I cannot tell you how many times in my life I wish I, an ex-semipro photographer, had had a point-and-shoot camera handy for the multitude of bizarre events I have witnessed in my life. Acquaintances always attribute them to flashbacks or hallucinations. But I know the difference. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891/30 "2004-01-02T00:13:28Z")
Well, then - that’s all that matters! 😃 I must say - if I lived in an area teeming with wildlife, I’d carry my camera with me at all times! But, then - I’m born and raised in Dallas, where the excitement generally comes from airplanes crashing into our local neighborhoods. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107172,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107172,00.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deer-in-the-headlights/221891.md?page=1)