On September 29th in the early morning, I hit a deer! My roommate was driving with me. We were on our way home from a ward activity up above Heber at a cabin. There were deer everywhere!! (like this pic I found on the internet)
We had even stopped a few times to just watch them all. So I was going slowly out of the canyon watching carefully. Then...wham!! He came charging at us and hit the driver's side of the car in the front. I wonder if he just got spooked from the headlights and went crazy and came into the road. It's like he purposely timed it so that he would head-butt my light. When we came to a complete stop I put the car in park and opened the door. The deer was about 15 feet back just wriggling in the road. The poor thing didn't die. I wanted to put it out of its misery! I think I must have broken its legs. It just wriggled its body enough until it got itself off the road. At first it was wriggling in the the wrong direction and was coming towards the car. I got a little scared and realized it could suddenly charge me or others could come out to save their friend or something. But then he was gone soon. Emilee told me to stop looking at the deer (so I didn't have nightmares or something) and said "what about your car?!" Oh yeah! My car! We looked. Just a light that was dangling and a little fur stuck to the car. I luckily had a flashlight and tape to fix up my car as to not loose parts on the way home.
I called mom even though it was 1 am. It was just my first response...to call home to get advice!
The funtimesguide.com says: If an encounter with a deer is inevitable, then you should hit the brakes up until the very last second of impact; suddenly releasing the brakes will send the deer propelling into the roadway rather than into your windshield." Source
"Most motorist deaths and injuries occur when drivers swerve to avoid hitting the deer and strike a fixed object, such as a tree or another vehicle. It may seem powerless, but simply applying your brakes while you're buckled up, gripping the steering wheel with both hands, and coming to a controlled stop (if possible) can actually help minimize damage and injuries." Source
Well...that's what I did! I was really lucky. The deer caused minimal damage.
It all could have been so much worse!! I'm so grateful it wasn't!!
3 comments:
Whoa. That would be scary. I mean you already told me the story, but I didn't realize there were a bunch of dear. Good thing it wasn't worse!
The important thing is that you did not have an accident beyond the deer!!! Nature will deal with the deer appropriately--or already has. The car can be fixed. Hopefully a lesson was learned--and even more hopefully--you will never have to use the lesson you learned--whatever it was. Once on the way back from Scipio, Utah, after having played for a New Year's Eve dance when Ilene and I were first married and still in college,I was sleepy so she drove. I woke up when she made a noise (besides the window being wide open and her singing outloud with the radio as she tried to stay awake). A deer had jumped across the road right in front of us and we almost hit it. So we can at least empathize. We learned that even poor starving students might have been better off to get a cheap otel rather that take the risk of driving sleepy. I think we still remember that lesson. At the time though, the bucks we made playing the gig were needed for food--so there you go. Glad you are OK!!!
Tam, I can't imagine how scary that must have been. I am so glad you weren't hurt. Poor deer! and poor Dear! :o) I hope you didn't have bad dreams about it.
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