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 ...
I had a deer staring into my headlights once, and turned down the headlights to parking lights and laid on the horn.
Once it was no longer hypnotized by the lights, it got out of the way FAST!
If you’re hitting things, then you’re driving too fast. Kinda dumb to think otherwise.
I have recently (past few months/weeks) almost hit two deer. Both during the day.
The first one I was out of state on the Interstate, towing our travel trailer, going 65mph. (I KNOW that because I have advanced cruise control and I never set it above the speed limit, (unless my wife is sleeping)
Wife screams as large deer appears immediately in front of me. What to do? (you have but only a split second to decide).
So, I think back to what that guy on the Internet said about swerving... NO, actually the amazing God given talent of being able to slow down time let me analyze the situation AFTER I had SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES AND STARTED TO SWERVE!
Then the slow motion kicked in and I remembered that I was towing a camping trailer and I probably should take it easy on the swerving part. So I straightened out as we watched the YUGE deer pass by the front of my Durango, waiting for the “thump”. There was none.
The more recent close call was 1/8th of a mile (or so) from my house. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! (deer ALWAYS cross the road there).
There are these 2 large open fields on each side of the road. Everything else is woods. Did I mention that the smaller field ends at the State Park undisturbed old growth woods.
We both saw this large deer at the same time. She screamed, I JUMPED ON THE BRAKES. (The anti-lock brakes were not “OVER-reactive” but I did not slide a tire, in other words they worked perfectly). The YUGE deer continued to bound across the road at breakneck speed, but I did notice the look in his eye “WTF are you doing in MY park?
I was not towing my camper and I did not swerve. In the slow motion decision time, I had decided to SLAM on the brakes as hard as I could, then hit the deer.
We did not hear a “thump”, but we did check the font of the Durango for hair! We found none.
did heelsup harris write this???
if you need to be told this, you really, and i mean really, shouldn’t be driving...
What should you do if a deer jumps into the road? First, slow down. Don’t slam on the brakes if it’s not safe to do so (like if the road is icy), but do safely reduce your speed as much as you can and it means that if you do collide, the collision will happen at a lower speed.
A moose or elk is a much larger creature than a deer, and their bodies are at windshield height when they are standing. When you hit a moose or elk, the legs are the only thing hit, and the car's windshield runs right into the body.
Moose vs. Volvo Crash Test:
What with the damage the democrats are doing to this country, an over population of deer is not going to be much of a problem much longer.
That is so sad.
I live in the Florida Panhandle along the Forgotten Coast. Most of the area is state forest. Hardly an evening goes by that I don’t see them on my drive home. I drive rather slowly (almost below the speed limit!) to try to see the deer before they do something stupid.
Late at night (or early in the morning) it is worse. The deer stand around in the road as if daring you to run over them!
Ive seen this before. Hard to imagine the physics involved. Far more damage to the sides of the vehicle than the front.
First was a doe following a buck from off a suburban sidewalk. Hit the brakes but could see the doe was going to end up under my front wheel. Told myself I was not going down and I goosed it hard. Sped up enough the doe's head hit the gas tank. Unfortunately her body slammed into my wife's leg on the back. Severely bruised but not broken. Wife's leg not the doe. She flipped and ended dying on the side of the road.
2nd time in the country. Yearling following a doe across the road on a sharp curve. Barely had time to break at all. Doe cleared but I hit the yearling square on its hip all on rubber not fender. She bounced off and ran up the hill. Bike went into a severe death wobble. Locked my arms and managed to ride it out. Couldn't believe nothing was broken on the bike.
Key items the article missed:
Cut your speed as much as possible before impact. Practice emergency braking. Brake as hard as you can, safely, assuming you don't have a tailgater
.
Always release the brakes right before you hit a deer. It raises your profile and keeps the deer from maybe going through your windshield.
Always scan both sides of the road 40-60 yards out. At night look for eyes.
Always hit the horn when you see a deer, any deer, anywhere near the road. Train your passengers to yell “HORN” if they see a deer.
When you can, drive near the center of the road, even slightly over the center line. Obviously not in traffic, approaching a crest of a hill, curves or when Smokey is around.
One of the few times I vividly recall my father losing his temper on me was when he was giving me driving lessons and I swerved to miss a squirrel.
The fact that I remember it so vividly and singularly is how seriously and firmly he thought that lesson was.
I’m teaching it right now to my 16-year-old as he terrorizes me behind the wheel...
In Colorado, my daughter hit a deer and totaled her car. She was OK.
Moose are essentially tall beef bulls
I once swerved a Cessna 172 around a deer. Does that count?
As I said, the environment a person lives in and the privileges afforded by some peoples lives lead many people to believe many strange and ridiculous things.
It’s always deer season when driving your truck
Don't try that with a bull moose.
Chances are high it will piss him off and he'll charge your car.
Had a co-worker that thought it was a good idea to parallel a deer on the highway instead of shutting down his bike. Worked briefly until the deer decided to cross over in front of him and ended up under the forks. Pretty much totaled the bike and the dude limped around work for about three weeks. Big dummy.
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