Deer Down

[DANNY-L]

Took my first of the year and my first ever hitting one last night and to make it worse it was with the wife's new jeep grand cherokee. Not pretty but if it weren't for water leaking out it would still have been drivable. She was with me and all she said was atleast ya didn't get the other two that was with it.

[bubba]

a very tough way to get one.  I am glad no one was hurt. 

[Siskiyou]

Feel for you.  A little fork cost my insurance company over $1600.

[1marty]

my son hit a deer one time and it went up in the air and landed on the wind shield. Lucky he wasn't killed. My wife never hit a deer but she does ram the side of the garage when pulling the car out.

[cwlongshot]

We almost clipped one yesterday in White Plains on RT84!!

It came running down the bank, we saw and braked... JUST missed the fender, jumped the jersey barriers and almost clipped a car going east bound and ran into the woods.... The two that where with it where standing on the west bound shoulder watching...
You could just hear there brains... "DUMB ASS"... LOL

GLAD your OK!

CW

[DANNY-L]

$6,002 estimate,85% of which is all the plastic cosmetic stuff.

[OldSchoolRanger]

Had a really close near miss, and one deer collision.  I was driving on a two lane highway, when a guy going in the other direction hit a doe, and sent her flying across my windshield, I thought she was coming into the car with me.

I hit a buck coming home from a real late shift one night, the dumb buck ran across the highway, I hit the brakes and swung into the right lane, and the dummy,  decided he didn't want to cross the road, changed directions and ran back for the woods, right in front of my car.  I hit it, and it landed on my hood and started to slide up the hood towards my windshield, I managed to jamb on the brakes, causing him to slide off, he spun like a top across three lanes of traffic, just missing getting hit bay two other cars.  I couldn't believe it survived the impact and the road rash.  The cop responding to the scene put him down, I thought about asking for the carcass, but my car just managed to limp home, leaking coolant.  The car was declared totaled.

The only thing good about hitting a deer with a car is that the accident is not chargeable to your driving record as an accident.  Other wise the insurance company would hit you with an accident  surcharge for 5 years. 

Did you keep the carcass?

[52bagman]

Oh I beg to differ about not charging your ins. co.. Just had a guy here locally hit one and the ins.co. asked him if he hit the deer or did the deer hit him. If he had answered, hit the deer, they were going to charge for collision and not comprehensive. So beware it is happening.
Where I live in WV I dodge them daily (two this morn). WV as far as I here is the deer car collision champ of the US of A.
In the last two years there have been five deer hit with three of my vehicles, two about eight minutes apart with one vehicle. Can't win.

[OldSchoolRanger]

52bagman - That is just stupid, you can't control the behavior of animals, it's like an act of God.  I would check on that charge for hitting a deer claim, or switch insurance companies.

BTW how much is it for out of state resident hunting licenses? Is a car a legal hunting implement?
 

[52bagman]

Not cheap for the licenses but with all the tags 10 is the limit (down from 13). As far as a vehicle being legal, if you whack one it's yours to keep.
I drive 18 miles going to work and all of that is through rural areas. I go 40mph or less in the mornings and the 45 (the speed limit) in the evenings. Generally average seeing at least 3 standing along the road every morn. I live in Mason Co. WV which is stretched out along the Ohio River with lots of agriculture on the river and hardwoods within a mile of the river, deer are everywhere AND TURKEYS. Whacked a turkey with the Subara this past summer.

[DANNY-L]

What gets me is that if you hit a domestic animal (cow,pig,horse,dog etc) the owner of the animals is responsible for damage done,so since deer are property of nys how come they're not responsible for the damage done to vehicle's.

[Mikey]

Because, I believe, they are wild animals not controlled by the state that roam free in contrast with farm animals kept for agricultural purposes, unless you are Armenian and then it's liable to get personal (just a joke, maybe....).
I have been hit by two Whitetail, both young ones.  One ran into the side of my old Bronco and knocked himself down but then got up and took off; the other tried to make it between the splash of the headlights on the road and the front of the car but hit the fender instead and got caught under the wheel.  I had to put that one down. 
I checked with some of my local pd to see if they had trouble with them and a couple of their vehicles wear those deer alert thingies on the front bumpers and they say that helps, but what also helps is honking your horn.  The noise seems to frighten them away. Whitetail do not understand headlights, and that the headlights or actual headlamps on a vehicle indicate something weighing about 1 ton and travelling at some wicked speed - they just see the splash of the headlights on the road and probably think (if they think at all) that once those pass then it's ok to run. 
The site moderator is a LEO in the western part of the state, I believe, and may have some specific suggestions on how he or his department or other departments deal with animals and vehicles, and if  he doesn't have any other advise then just be careful and use your horn - works for me, except in the city with jaywalkers............

[Rol Page]

Sorry to see the nice new vehicle damaged.  Glad that no one was hurt and it appears that your wife does have a sense of humor, (at least you did not get the other two).
This situation will only get worse with the upcoming ruts.  I agree that deer whistles do help.  Have seen deer ready to cross the road turn tail and return up a bank as I approached with the whistles on my truck.  I suggest that we not try to swerve to avoid a deer.. It may cause a roll over accident that may be worse than a deer car collision.
Safe driving and good hunting, with a weapon other than your vehicle.

[DANNY-L]

I did have the whistlers and I think they have worked wll in the past but ya can't expect them to be 100%. As for swerving that can turn an accident into a tragedy.

[spikehorn]

I've hit three deer in my driving career. But the two most scarrey were near misses. 1 was just after I got healed up from a motorcycle accident where I broke 9 ribs and seperated my shoulder. It was early Oct I was on my way home and hit the flats where there was alot of corn fields. It was about 11 pm and a bunch of deer came out of the corn field in front of me at a full run. I some how managed to make it through them without hitting any at all. They were so close to me that I could hear the sound of the hooves on the pavement over the sound of my bikes engine.
The 2nd I was on my way home from work again about 11 pm. I was stuck behind a semi. I  floored my car and passed the semi. I was doing about 85 and I had just pulled back into my lane, and there in the other lane stood a tremendous buck. All I could think was that if I had hit that buck and lost control of my car I probably would've ended up in the path of that semi. 

[DANNY-L]

It's bad enough in a vehicle but a bike that will definently leave a mark.

[The Hermit]

When Donna was alive, she hit deer with her jeep, two years in a row. The body shop man said he was gonna put wing nuts on the fender bolts if she did it again. 
 
   The Hermit

[DANNY-L]

Wing nuts would be like in and out same day surgery. A couple years ago a friend of mine that travels alot work (home health care) and has hit quite a few deer but what really did costly damage mostly under the car was a coyote.