Why you should hit deer on the road...

Deer love mowed grass. It's one of their main foodstuffs in the suburbs.

 

More deer get hit during autumn because they are foraging for food before winter.

Roadsides often are planted with cheap rye grass by state transportation departments. Roadsides often have the only green vegetation available, and since deer move at night a lot for protection they are on roadsides more at night.

Another factor is bucks are chasing does to screw during the autumn breeding period.

If you can brake or slow down without getting rear-ended, do so. If you have to hit the deer do it straight on and don't slow down. Plow through the damn thing and then slow down. Better to hit the deer than to slow down or swerve and get hit by another vehicle.

 

Depending on your speed, a deer can easily total your vehicle.

 

I once hit a cow, which did total the car I was driving. I shudder to think what might have happened had I swerved. I would likely have still hit it, and the car would have been totally out of control.

 

I travel a whole lot in my car, and I've been lucky not to hit anything bigger than a squirrel. I hope I never hit any significant animal, and not because I'm worried about my car. Pretty sure I would be scarred for life if I killed an animal on the road. And I'm not so sure about deer, but, to be honest, I'd almost rather crash my car and end up in the hospital or dead than hit a dog.

 

Well, that depends on the type of vehicle, I guess. I live in Deer Central, where you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't hit a deer. The last two deer hits we had were $1,700 (ran right into the side of the pickup) and $3,500 (a huge 8-point buck that I'm guessing went about 250. Hit him flat on the butt at about 60 mph, the damage didn't look too bad, but all the stupid plastic stuff, sheez.)

I can't ever recall anyone around here having a vehicle totaled from a deer hit, although I would not dispute it's happened.

Several years ago, I was riding with my brother in his pickup, we hit a deer going, well, very fast.

There wasn't much left of the deer.

Wouldn't want to have hit one going that fast in a car.

 

Another thing I was taught was never to use high beams because the deer would freeze in the headlights. Now they teach you to ALWAYS use high beams in the wild so you can actually see the bloody things.

I had a near miss where I swerved to avoid a deer that materialized in my lane in the fog, as if Picard has transported him there. Swerved, fishtailed, didn't hit anything and was fine. Hopped out of the car to look at it and see if everything was where it was. It was. Got in the car (it's facing the median), look out the window ... and see a car barreling towards me at 75. If he doesn't see me, I don't feel a thing. He does and misses me with plenty of time to spare. Still ...

HIT THE FUCK OUT OF BAMBI.

The More You Know.

 

As Rosie says, moose don't apply. You likely won't win that collision.

 

How sad. That is just awful.

My dad taught me how to drive and he always told me that, as much as you try to spare the wildlife that you see on the roads, there is no point in killing yourself to save an animal, as heartless as that sounds.

 

Surely you are not serious.

You would rather be injured or dead, or cause other injuries or death by stopping in a road, than to hit a dog?

Unless someone is behind you and you cannot stop ... Hit. The. Animal.

I almost lost two friends in high school who swerved to miss a dog and flipped repeatedly in a ditch before landing in trees. She suffered a lacerated liver, ruptured spleen, shattered pelvis and other bones. He was thrown halfway from the vehicle and suffered less extensive damages but still was in the hospital for more than two weeks.

 

Well, I'd rather not die, but I'd spend some time in the hospital if it meant no dead dog. I'd make that sacrifice.