I am extremely sensitive to the suffering of animals. When it’s hot and dry I put out dishes of water for little critter that might not be able to make it up to the bird bath, like snails, slugs, frogs and bunnies. I have acquired my neighbours cats because they don’t take proper care of them. In the winter I have a heater for the hummingbirds and a bucket of water ice-free for deer, bears, raccoons and cougars or any other creatures who are thirsty.
Last night at work I spent (no joke) probably 10 minutes saving a fly. It was doing that thing where they lay on their backs buzzing around in a circle with their feet up in the air. I would pick him up to put in a plant or something and every time I righted him, he’d fly off only to land on his back across the room. Finally I managed to get him standing on the dirt in the plant pot.
Hit a deer on my way home.
Never hit anything with my car before. It was super traumatic. Fortunately, I am a slow driver and was doing about 25 km (15 miles) because it was on a dark, windy, forested, slippery road. An extremely nice man came up behind me about 30 seconds later. I hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet. As we got out of our cars, the deer got up and trotted off into the forest so maybe it will be okay. I’m hoping anyway. Lay awake most of the night thinking about the poor thing.
I’ve never hit anything either, and I’d be devastated if I did!
I haven’t saved any flies lately, but I’m pretending not to notice a wolf spider living under a baseboard in my bathroom, although I’m terrified of spiders.
I hope your deer is okay, and learned a valuable lesson.
Years ago I had a commute which took in a stretch of the A 22 (which runs from London to Eastbourne). I was driving a few miles of the Eastboune end of it, which is rather rural. It’s busy, and a pretty fast road, but I was very puzzled (when I started using it) about how the traffic would speed up and slow down for no apparent reason. That’s how I found out that deer are creatures of habit, and will cross the road at certain specific points - that’s where the traffic (wiser drivers than I) slowed right down. So I was actually going pretty slowly (one winter morning, around dawn) when one jumped out of the woods, took a good look at me, then headed back to the woods as I - stamping on the brake - helped him on the way with a punt up the backside.
He ran off with no ill effects, so far as I could see (which is more than you could say for the car). They’re tough old critters. I shouldn’t worry too much, OP.
An expensive way of learning about the road-crossing habits of deer, mind.
I’ve done similar (the deer, not the fly) I used to live in an area that was directly on the evening route-to-water and winter feeding grounds for the local deer herd. I drove a Ford Contour at the time and the road had a day and night speed limit because of all the deer.
So I’m heading home from work one winters eve and bout wreck the car getting blinded by some damn fool in a chevy savanna with their hibeams on straddling the centerline trying to make sure the deer can cross safely.idiot
Anyway, longstory short the deer bounced up like a rubber ball and with a leap and a bound was gone from sight in the evening darkness, maybe a bit bruised, but not much worse for wear I’m sure. Don’t sweat it,
I’m just going to choose to believe that he’s okay.
It’s very interesting how my mind recalls a traumatic even like that. I know that things didn’t happen the way I “remember” because it’s impossible. My memory goes like this:
I came around the corner and saw him out of my driver’s side (left) window and slammed on the brakes and came to a stop in the snow. Then I changed my mind and backed up but decided, no I should slam on the brakes and come to a stop in the snow. Then a crash, Then nothing, then the deer rearing up on his back legs and then laying down on the road and me yelling “NOOOOOOOOOO! I stopped I stopped!”.
The Mrs. and I have killed a lot of deer with our cars. They’re so thick around our area, I’ve seen as many as 25 in my own back yard at times. Most annoying. I’ve totalled two cars by this method also.
One huge buck jumped right in front of me, I hit him head on, he flipped over my car, landed on the rear window, blowing it out completely, with him hanging halfway into my vehicle. He got up and ran away. I have doubts about his long term survival though, given the force of the impacts.
The Mrs. sent one deer sliding down the road about 70 feet. It was like a cue ball hitting the 8 ball.
It’s not fun being an unintentional predator.
I don’t hunt deer, but let some of my neighbors and relatives bow hunt on my land, to thin the herd. I get some venison as a result, which is nice. Nicer than finding deer carcasses in the spring, of those who starved over the winter.
I do not save mosquitos or wasps. I’m kind to ants and bees and bats though, if they stay out of the house.
I don’t save mosquitos but I don’t enjoy killing them. I have to either kill wasps in the house or get them out immediately because I have a dog and I don’t want her to get stung. If something isn’t bothering me and is just trying to live its life, I leave it alone. I’ve taught myself to not be afraid of spiders and just put them outside.
Years ago I was living in an apartment and there was a strange beetle in the laundry room down in the basement. I carefully picked it up and put it outside. Next day there was a notice that they were going to spray the building for roaches.
I have a 35 mile one-way commute to work each day. 25 of those miles are on a narrow, winding mountain road and it’s a rare day that I dont see deer in, next to, or near the road.
A month or so ago I actually hit a dead one – I came around a corner and it was in the middle or the road and I couldn’t stop in time… thumpthumpthump. My car, a Civic, doesn’t seem the worse for wear.
The car is paid off but I keep full coverage on it for this very reason.
QtM, I recall a post you made several years ago lamenting the perilous drive you have to get to your work – perilous due the abundance of deer. I recall that post often when I’m driving to work as it feels like I’m navigating a minefield. I tell myself “remember you aren’t alone… at least Doc back in Wisconsin deals with these suicidal bastards as well and has to deal with ice on the roads to boot.”
The basic rule of meeting wildlife on the road in your car: NEVER SWERVE! Too many people are severely injured or die by running off the road and into trees or rivers or other cars or pedestrians, swerving to avoid a deer, or racoon, or squirrel etc. I’ll never aim for an animal, but I will not jeopardize my life nor the lives of other people in my car or near my car by swerving.
Absolutely. I’ve hit 4 deer (on 3 separate occasions… 2 at once. That was an adventure) in my 25 years of driving and each time I would have, at best, flipped my car had I swerved. One one occasion I likely would’ve gone into a river.
I know several people who have totaled vehicles by swerving off the road to avoid a deer. Luckily none of them have been hurt.
I never hit a deer, but I did hit a cow on Maui. This was decades ago, before the road going around the south shore was paved or had lights. It was pitch black, and suddenly there was a small herd of black cows crossing the road. I hit one of them, but when I got out of the car it had disappeared.
OP, you would have hated me as a kid. I had an extensive collection of insects which I had caught or raised… then killed and dried and mounted, under glass with typewritten common and Latin names. I still have a couple cases of them that my mom had saved. Those insects would have died anyway, over 60 years ago.
I once rented a car to do the 7 hour drive, each way, to visit my folks and had 2 deer jump into the side of my car less than a mile from home. Fuck those graceful looking large rats.
@FloatyGimpy , I’m sure the deer was OK. I had a similar experience once, and the deer ran like the wind and leaped over a barbed wire fence. They’re tougher than they seem.
I’ve known several people who’ve hit deer and killed 'em, but they were all going quite fast. And I know one person who was injured when she drove straight into a deer, but in that case, the deer came through her windshield.
And any damage to your vehicle will be covered under comprehensive Coverage, not collision, if you didn’t serve. There is no surcharge for comprehensive claims but there is for collision claims.
The couple across the street from us have totaled three cars in the last 4 months by hitting deer on their way to work.
We had more rain this monsoon season than we have in over 20 years. Everything grew and bred and because there was a sudden overpopulation of deer folks are hitting them left and right.
It comforts me a lot that many people have said the deer was likely OK. After he got up he didn’t limp or stumble. He walked over to the side of the road, jumped across the ditch and then disappeared into the trees.
Glad you are ok OP. Hope the deer is as well. My folks used to live in Cambria, Ca. Deer used to somewhat live in their backyard. They put DeerMdw on their license plates. I have the car now, and kept the plates. My uncle had one go through the passenger side of the windshield up there, he was lucky.
I hit one here in Santa Barbara once, on my bicycle, going downhill quite fast. I had an old school generator light, which may have spooked him, jumped right in front of me, crosswise. Over I went. I was mostly Ok, nothing broken, but much general road rash and dents in me. I still remember (this was 30 years ago) seeing the hairs across his back before the light turned off. No hard feelings, I always hoped he/she was OK.
When I was driving on track, my home track had occasional issues with deer running across the track, especially early in the morning. And naturally, we were all going as fast as we could at any given point on the course.
One thing I learned is that where there is one deer there usually are more. So if you have a close call with one deer, don’t let your guard down. Keep your eyes open for more.
One of the stories that went around the track was about (graphic description blurred) a particularly hard hit that decapitated the deer and sent its head flying through the car’s open sun roof, and onto the passenger’s seat.
Killed a wild turkey with my car about a week back. They’re thick were I live, some roost literally twenty feet from my front door (and they’re noisy buggers, both tucking in and waking up). I’m fond of them and felt bad but I had zero time to react as it just strolled out three feet in front of my car while I was doing ~40 mph. Didn’t so much as scratch my car, but it was like I had hit a feather pillow. I think it was dead pretty much instantly, which is better than the poor thing suffering I guess.
First animal I can recall hitting in 35 or so years of driving. I’ve been able to avoid running over large snakes stretched out across the middle of a blacktop (and gone back to move them out of the road). Indeed I see deer every day as well and try to be extra careful driving home at night because they just love those road verges in the evening and I see a distressing number of road-killed fawns every year in my neighborhood. But bad luck finally caught up with the both of us.
Well. I’ve hit many deer. Didn’t want to but it can’t be helped.
The last 2(at one time) nearly killed me. Both deer were killed.
My car flipped at least twice. No witnesses. I hung upside down for probably more than an hour. Bleeding, unconscious and broken bones.
Mr. Wrekker found me.
I was in the hospital many weeks.
My face was really messed up. I had 3 surgeries, teeth implanted and loads of rehab.
I fear deer everytime I’m in a car driving in my rural area.
My whole family have hit deer and other wildlife.
The latest was my husband hit a huge feral hog. He had a guard on his truck so it got little damage. The hog was shot on scene.
ETA: I never swerve.
And I do love animals. But deer vs. car is never a good thing.
idiot