Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why You Shouldn't Swerve Around Deer (or Other Animals) in the Road-Doing so can actually make things more dangerous for you, the deer, or both
Life Hacker ^ | 3-8-22 | Beth Skwarecki

Posted on 03/11/2022 8:55:43 AM PST by SJackson

Edited on 03/11/2022 8:26:35 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]

There are a lot of bad decisions you might make if a deer appears in front of you in the road while you’re driving. You’ll be startled, it will freeze, and your brain will sound the alarm that you should do something now—but please, avoid the urge to swerve around it.


(Excerpt) Read more at lifehacker.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors
KEYWORDS: deer; driving
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-103 next last
To: SJackson

Oh, see the deer
Has the deer a little doe?

Why soitenly....Two Bucks! *slap*


21 posted on 03/11/2022 9:16:48 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I had to run over a bobcat years ago. I was driving down the Kern River Canyon at 4 am and a bobcat jumped down from a small cliff directly in front of me. If it had happened a millisecond later he might have gone through the windshield. After running him over there was no way I was going back.


22 posted on 03/11/2022 9:17:50 AM PST by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.p)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I learned that lesson when I was 20, living in Monterey. Someone’s Airedale dog got off his leash and ran into traffic. I was riding a motorcycle, swerved, but, as the owner had just called the dog it made a quick turn BACK and right into my path.

Of course I’d stood on the brakes, maybe going 10 mph but still center-punched the dog, flipped the bike and me and my girlfriend went a$$ over teakettle into the lane - neither of us, thankfully, injured other than some scuffed pants/shoes.

The dog, however, back visibly broken, howling in pain dragged itself off to the curb where its owner showed up to comfort it in its last dying moments.

I had nightmares about that for years. Poor dog.

I got information from him, name, address, phone number, gave him my insurance information and he skipped town the next day. I knew his mom as a patient in the clinic where I worked at the Presidio and asked her to tell him I was fine, damage to the bike was minor and I wasn’t going to sue. She looked relieved but said she had no idea where he was.

Yeah.

GF left too.

I ran over a squirrel 20 years ago in my neighborhood and a neighbor behind me quoted the riot act while I was getting out of my car in my driveway screaming “why didn’t you swerve!!!?”

I just shrugged and said “God will make more,” and went inside.

I think her name was Karen.

Coincidentally, our house was egged a few nights later.


23 posted on 03/11/2022 9:19:05 AM PST by normbal (normbal. somewhere in socialist occupied America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

From the archives of the Captain Obvious and Department of redundancy department.


24 posted on 03/11/2022 9:21:22 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: normbal

I remember when I took my driver safety class, the teacher said, “You’re driving in traffic, and little Fluffy comes darting across the road, what do you do?......SMOKE FLUFFY!”

The point being of course swerving endangers other cars.


25 posted on 03/11/2022 9:22:30 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Local vegetable stand sign:

“Road Kill...$19.99/lb”

I remember when it was free. AND, it was easier to get home if it was already lodged in your windshield.


26 posted on 03/11/2022 9:23:24 AM PST by moovova
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I had a girlfriend once who swerved for everything. It was quite scary in the fall, because she even swerved for leaves that were blowing around. We nearly had a head on collision driving down a mountain in Vermont because of leaves. We had several arguments over it.


27 posted on 03/11/2022 9:23:25 AM PST by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

With modern ABS system it’s OK to hit the brakes but at speed I never try to swerve. One time my girls observed my behavior with a rabbit in the road and they yelledat me and I just said “I love my kids more than I love that rabbit.


28 posted on 03/11/2022 9:24:15 AM PST by wildcard_redneck (Welcome to leftist Planet Lab Cage where are YOU are the rat)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson; Unassuaged
About 25 years ago a guy that worked for me took a horse into a Range Rover. The horse was perpendicular to the vehicle and came up onto the hood and pinned him in his seat. He didn't get badly injured.

Around here the rule is that unless it is a big cow or horse you hit it in a straight line

29 posted on 03/11/2022 9:25:18 AM PST by mad_as_he$$
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SaxxonWoods

Right, Moose and Elk are the ones I would try not to hit, more so than a whitetail. If you hit a moose with a car and he notices, he’ll probably get mad.


30 posted on 03/11/2022 9:26:53 AM PST by ferret_airlift
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: moovova

Best of all, it comes pre-grilled


31 posted on 03/11/2022 9:27:25 AM PST by ferret_airlift
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Yo-Yo

Yep. Take the hit. The wife and I have been involved in 4 car-deer collisions here in Eastern Nebraska (one was in Northeast Kansas). It is always best to just hit em and deal with the damage. One that my wife was involved in north of Manhattan ended up with antlers through the windshield on the passenger side. That was a bloody mess but no two legged animals were injured. The Camry did not end up so well, though.


32 posted on 03/11/2022 9:31:35 AM PST by Big Red Clay (Greetings from the Big Red State )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I didn’t look - was this written by a 7-year-old (for a school project) or Kamala Harris?


33 posted on 03/11/2022 9:33:31 AM PST by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gitmo

Six months ago a deer teleported in front of my car. There was no time to swerve or brake. There was minor damage to my vehicle. The deer was killed instantly.

Star Trek teleporting deer. The most dangerous of all.


34 posted on 03/11/2022 9:34:14 AM PST by Flick Lives (The CDC. Brought to you by Pfizer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I was in the Boston area many years ago on a business trip. On a warm spring day, as I pulled into the left-turn lane, a squirrel ran in front of me. I slowed down to avoid hitting it. It was no big deal since the left-turn arrow was red, anyway.

Well, the guy behind me started laying on his horn and cursing me a blue streak. I can still hear him yelling at me: “Damn you, are you crazy?! Around here we don’t stop for squirrels. Just hit it!”

So much for doing a nice, little good deed around Boston!

The woman who tends the property next to ours in Idaho had a deer hit her nice, new Toyota Tundra pickup truck last fall. She was just driving to her next appointment in the hills and BAM! The deer smacked her truck’s right side. There were a couple of huge dents in the sheet metal from the door to the rear and, surprisingly, a real deep dent at the corner sheet metal where it is strongest. It looked like a few thousand dollars of repair work.

The moral of my stories? Sometimes you can avoid the animal. Sometimes you can’t. And sometimes the animal is going to hit you no matter what you do!


35 posted on 03/11/2022 9:38:32 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (“Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't.” ~ Jerry Rice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Whoever wrote this

Some urban hipster chick who only knows deer from the ones she sees off the Taconic parkway or on the Palisades when she leaves Brooklyn for what she calls a real hike

I live near the natchez trace

A 440 mile long winding two lane federal road perfectly constructed and huge pasture shoulders with lush blue grass fescue on the north end and carpet like st Augustine on the south half

As good a grazing lane as known for cloven animals ...

I’ve hit two on it in 64 years

I’ve known tons of folks likewise same

And deer are everywhere now pretty much

Deer will run into a headlight not from it at sometime

It makes no sense but they do

They dodge better than squirrels but they are not always in full avoid the car mode

Unpredictable ...I’ve moved and missed 100s of deer in my life

Article is not accurate


36 posted on 03/11/2022 9:38:55 AM PST by wardaddy (Free Republic has gone insane but it's fun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

The only thing that I am swerving for is a human.


37 posted on 03/11/2022 9:40:36 AM PST by caver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

If there are so many deer in an area that they are wandering onto roads and freeways, they should probably be culled. These are not endangered animals - if anything, there are far too many of them.


38 posted on 03/11/2022 9:42:47 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

At 60 mph in a car, a deer tried to jump over it, failed and come in through the windshield to land dead in the passenger seat.

I ducked behind the A-Pillar for a second to two and drove home with no windshield and surrounded with glass shards.

So yes, when at speed, don’t leave the road.


39 posted on 03/11/2022 9:42:53 AM PST by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: wrench

A 100 pound deer does a lot of damage to a car or truck

Hitting livestock is bad news

I was in a car hit a cow once

Cow was already hit on its side

It was blood guts and poop everywhere as the car careened over it

We thought we’d hit it first.....it was night

We were out past camp Kickapoo nw of Jax Miss at 2am stoned as Kesey and I’m sure had been drinking ....very rural

Farmer showed up with his tractor to pull her off the road....a Holstein

We were man we are so sorry we hit your cow

He’s like I’m sorry the smell on your car this cow has been hit a few times now

Surreal.....we were at the beach months later and in the heat u could still smell under that lemans sport


40 posted on 03/11/2022 9:49:19 AM PST by wardaddy (Free Republic has gone insane but it's fun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-103 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson