Foggy weather today made for dangerous driving conditions
This morning, on my way to work, I hit a deer. Not a great start to 2017. Just a few blocks from my house I saw a single doe walking on the left side of the road. I slowed down to look for other deer in the fog, but didn't see any and relaxed a bit. Around here, a lot of people feed the deer so they are common in large groups. Right as I was about to pass, the deer changed directions and bolted in front of my car. At that point, an accident was unavoidable.
Just yesterday I wrote about how I had planned out my spending for 2017. That seems like an especially timely article now that I will have an unplanned expense to replace my bumper, fender lining, radiator and compressor.
This expensive little crack is the only visible damage to my car.
How to react
When I was in high school, one of my classmates actually died in a car crash caused by a deer. Early one morning during summer vacation, he was driving to the golf course and swerved to dodge a deer. He lost control of his car and ended up crashing into a tree. That was a terrible tragedy and has stuck with me ever since. After that point, I learned that the correct action to take is to slow down as best you can, but maintain control of your car the whole time. It's much better to hit the deer than to lose control of your car. It's one thing to know the proper action to take, but another to execute under stress. While I was mad at myself for not being able to stop in time, I was glad that I remembered to keep control of my car. I just have to keep in mind the accident could have been a lot worse.
For my friends up north, much more dangerous than a deer on the road is a moose. In this case, swerving may be okay. A moose is huge and crashing into one could be deadly. Also, some experts recommend not braking if you'll hit the moose. Braking can cause the moose to go through the windshield instead of over the car as shown below.
Moose running into a car. Source: Jalopnik
Overall, I'm just glad to make out okay and won't let this inauspicious start to 2017 get me down. Stay safe out there this winter!
Sorry to hear that!
"the correct action to take is to slow down as best you can, but maintain control of your car the whole time. It's much better to hit the deer than to lose control of your car. It's one thing to know the proper action to take, but another to execute under stress. " <--True for many aspects of life! (just swap car and deer for some other exogenous event!)
I am really sorry to hear this happened, thank your for sharing that personal story about your friend. And, my god at that gif.
I think after today I'll be purchasing a dash cam. I wish I had my own footage.
So sorry about your classmate. Car-deer accidents are no joke. I'm glad you came out of your incident OK. I've seen a full-grown steer fly up over a car that hit it, at full speed, like your moose gif. What a mess! I hope the rest of your year is incident-free - and a great year for you.
Thank you. I'm still mad at myself but at the same time I was very lucky. I hope you have a good 2017 too.
Thanks. And let's hope those deer stay off in the fields!
Sorry about the accident. My wife and I hit a deer just over a year ago. It did over 12,000 dollars worth of damage to our truck we had only owned for three months. No injuries to us, but the deer was killed of course.
Ouch. Your accident gives me a little better perspective. $12k is a lot from just a deer!
Yep. A straight-on collision at 70 mph. Messed the truck up pretty bad.