Warning, language!
At least a couple people from HOG got killed in PA this year and more injured. I almost had a doe take out me and my Sportie a mile from downtown Pittsburgh. The population of deer in PA is reaching critical mass and if the Game Commission doesn’t address it soon, our insurance is going to skyrocket.
I lived in rural PA most of my early driving years. The closest I’ve ever come to hitting a deer was in a well built-up area just north of Pittsburgh…maybe not in the “city” part exactly, but in a much denser area than a suburb.
There was a deer walking down our street last night. No wonder our cats have been wired lately. Even though we don’t let them outside, I think they can smell the deer.
Nice theory, bad in the real world. Google-map the lower part of Marshall Ave in Pittsburgh PA; where the ramp from 65 meets Marshall. That is where the doe almost got me. I’ve also seen deer around the stadiums; rarely but there are a few native around there. Cities got parks and cemeteries, parks and cemeteries got deer.
When I lived in El Paso, a huge mule deer buck leaped over my car’s hood. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and hit the brakes–if I hadn’t, it would have come through my convertible roof. BTW, a mule deer is about the size of an elk, at least 3 times the size of a whitetail. And this was not in a suburban area. That was scary!
That’s exactly why I won’t go over twenty mph on my street when I’m on my bike. At least in my truck I’ve got some protection- hitting a deer at any speed on my bike could be deadly.
They’re a menace. But yet people will pay hundreds, thousands of dollars on equipment and deer pee (what?) to go sit in the wood and wait to kill one with a gun.
Just drive down the highway, BigBoy!
Not really true. While southern White Tail deer are smaller, the ones that live up north are pretty much the same size a mule deer. Elk are considerably bigger than both, nearly twice the size.
All right, you got me. That’s 15 minutes or so from where I live (the way I drive, at least). I give.
Deer have become such a nuisance in the Cincinnati area that they have eliminated the limit of does to be taken, and have had lotteries for hunters to be eligible to hunt them in the city parks. I live in a developing rural area, and just count them as a tradeoff for the lifestyle.
On a similar note, Mrs. S aided in the suicide wishes of a coyote 2 weeks ago, which unfortunately caused about 2K of damage to her car. Thank og for insurance, I have the feeling the coyote’s family is not going to come forward to take responsibility.
A deer recently made the news here by jumping into the lion’s den at the zoo in the middle of Washington, DC. It did surprise me that it was so far into the city, but I guess there’s a large park that runs through there.
Cool. You’ll just deal with being mugged by crackheads without complaint then?
You wouldn’t have a vehicle left, by the time you hit the tenth doe your donating to the food pantry. A gun you use all the time is a lot cheaper and the meat isn’t full of bone splinters.
No, you hit them with your car. Same net effect as the deer collisions, but a guilty party suffers instead of an innocent one.
Partly its PA and partly its just the nature of deer but its crazy out there right now. You probably know Riverview Park? Not that big at all really. They busted someone for poaching 5 deer out of there this spring and figure the herd is still like 20 head. Make that 19 – I saw one road-killed down under where the Davis Ave bridge was imploded. Saw 5 in my MILs backyard on Davis. Perry Hilltop is one of those places I just won’t ride the bike through; North Charles Street and the crack dealers is safer than Perrysville and the deer.
Deer are a pain, but where I grew up in southern Saskatchewan it pretty much goes with the territory. Put some deer warners on your vehicle and keep an eye out, but most people still get nailed eventually.
Much worse are the elk and the moose which are tall enough to crash right through your windshield. I know of a guy who just 3 weeks ago hit 2 moose at the same with his camaro (coincidentally just south of the town of Moose Jaw). He lived somehow, but it totaled the car and the moose (mother & mostly grown calf pair). At least one of them flipped over the top and managed to completely steamroll/crush both the top of the car and the trunk pretty much flat.
Had a friend hit a juvenile moose in a Mazda Miata. The moose’s legs demolished the front of the car, and the moose’s torso landed on the trunk. Basically, the only part of the car that wasn’t destroyed was the passenger part. He was fine, and the moose ran away.
From what I’ve read, it’s not believed that those do much, but I suppose they can’t hurt.
15 years ago, I was driving down I-43, north of Milwaukee, in the middle of the afternoon, when a deer came running across the median strip and hit the front of my Mazda Protege. Swerving at 70mph wasn’t a good idea. She hit my license plate, rolled up the hood, and then hit the A-pillar between the windshield and the passenger window, which threw her off the car. I was completely unhurt, but if she’d hit me just a foot further to my left, she would have come right through the window, and I might have been killed.
I have near encounters at last 3 times a week, this time of year.
I haven’t hit one since the spring, though. And that was because another driver hit it first, and it was laying down in the middle of the lane in the middle of a dip, and wasn’t even visible until I was about 40 feet from it.