Deer In the Headlights...On the Freeway?

[tomalak301]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

 

[RoJoHen]

That happened to my grandmother. Deer jumped right into the side of her car when she was driving in the highway.

I hit a deer once doing much the same, instead I clipped it in the ass right as I was passing. A split second later and I would have missed it completely.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I've never hit one or been hit by one, but they are a common sight in New Jersey. They cross highways all the time, which is really scary. They're most active late at night and right around dawn, so those are the most treacherous times to be driving in wooded areas. Although they also show up a lot in areas with few trees, so you gotta be careful.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My relatives up in NJ see deer all the time. Every day when my aunt takes me to the train station, we pass one. Both of my cousins have, on at least one occasion each, hit one. I swear there must be almost as many deer as people up there.

We don't see deer back home here although the neighborhood around my dad's house is infested with turkeys. Sometimes there's dozens of them on his front lawn. I've also seen them near the interstate.

I hit a deer once doing much the same, instead I clipped it in the ass right as I was passing.

Deer: "HEY! I'm WALKIN' here, pal!"

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

Fall is rutting (mating) season for deer, and the males will get hyper-aggressive and attack just about anything, including people and cars, often with it ending badly for the deer in the latter case.

A lot of people picture deer like Bambi, and try and get too close or pet them, not realizing that they're actually quite dangerous, especially in rutting season.

The example below is an elk which is much larger than what you would have encountered, but it gives you an idea of what deer think of cars during this time of year:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60o3c05NWkQ[/yt]

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The closest I've come on the Interstate is when one bounded across my path at night in western New York state. Total miss, but if I had been a second earlier, or he a second later, it could have been a disaster.

Here in Kentucky, deer are on or near the country two-lane roads quite a lot. I've had to stop frequently, to let them cross, usually at night or in the early morning before dawn.

Once in the middle of the day in late autumn, I had to come to a complete stop on a Kentucky two-lane road, because one was simply standing in the middle of the road. After I stopped and started waiting patiently, a few seconds later she slowly meandered off the road and down towards the creek in the bare bush. Poor thing could have easily been mowed down.

 

[Melakon]

Deer attacking cars might be stupid enough to think the car is invading their territory. I've never hit one, but once hit a pheasant when driving home from my dad's funeral. It shook me up so badly (thinking it was an omen), my friend had to drive us the 100 miles left to get home.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

My dad almost hit one on our way through South Dakota in 2012. It just ran out on the freeway. It spooked Dad pretty badly as he saw someone killed because the guy hit a buck and it crashed through the windshield...

 

[Captain Ice]

Deer on the highways are a common sight in northern Arizona.

One morning several years ago I was driving from Flagstaff to Phoenix and encountered one standing in the middle of the road with about three more off to one side.

 

[scotpens]

The obvious solution: Move the deer crossing signs!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI8UPHMzZm8[/yt]

 

[M'Sharak]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

It's a fairly frequent occurrence on some freeways. Your Loc: field says you're in the Bay Area, and when I lived there I knew quite a few people who had high-speed introductions to deer while driving at night along I-280 between Pacifica and Palo Alto.

 

[tomalak301]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

It's a fairly frequent occurrence on some freeways. Your Loc: field says you're in the Bay Area, and when I lived there I knew quite a few people who had high-speed introductions to deer while driving at night along I-280 between Pacifica and Palo Alto.

This was on 280 in Millbrae.

I almost hit another deer today. It was a residential road though so I was able to slow down, but just my luck having 3 deer cross my path in 12 hours. They are out in full force apparently.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The obvious solution: Move the deer crossing signs!

I know that was meant tongue-in-cheek, but something was done locally to make it better for the deers by actually making a safer way for deers to cross a busy highway by building a wildlife overpass for deers and other animals, and it's been pretty successful. And I hear there are similar sorts of installations elsewhere.

When my Dad and I were on our trip out west, as we were crossing into Wisconsin late at night to get to a campsite, we hit a deer. Felt terrible as we couldn't slow down in time and it seemed to have come out of nowhere as we couldn't see it in time even with all the light we had. We ended up having to replace one of our light covers.

 

[M'Sharak]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

It's a fairly frequent occurrence on some freeways. Your Loc: field says you're in the Bay Area, and when I lived there I knew quite a few people who had high-speed introductions to deer while driving at night along I-280 between Pacifica and Palo Alto.

This was on 280 in Millbrae.

That would be a likely spot. The deer cross over from the San Andreas Lake watershed area on one side to the greenbelts and open space up at the top of Millbrae on the other. Same thing a bit farther down between the Crystal Springs Reservoir and the upper parts of Hillsborough. There might also be a seasonal shift going on right now, as the last of the summer growth is cleared out and the deer go to graze on people's landscaping plants or at the golf courses.

The obvious solution: Move the deer crossing signs!

I know that was meant tongue-in-cheek, but something was done locally to make it better for the deers by actually making a safer way for deers to cross a busy highway by building a wildlife overpass for deers and other animals, and it's been pretty successful. And I hear there are similar sorts of installations elsewhere.

I just read an article recently about a new wildlife overpass being completed - maybe the one near you. I know there are a couple in one of the western provinces (near Banff, I think) which have been working successfully for a while and a couple of others somewhere in the Netherlands that you see pictures of here and there. Something like that (or a wildlife underpass) would probably work well in places like the freeway SJSharksfan39 was driving on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_crossing

But making a project like that happen may involve overcoming a huge amount of institutional inertia.


Edit:

Looks like the recent article I mentioned may have been about an overpass in Wyoming:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwo...e-learn-look-both-ways-crossing-street-152363

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, they make more sense in heavily forested areas where it's known to be a problem area, where they can easily make a case for them.

Here's the one near me:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/ontario-builds-first-bridge-for-animals-near-sudbury-1.1148087

 

[M'Sharak]

Yeah, they make more sense in heavily forested areas where it's known to be a problem area, where they can easily make a case for them.

Here's the one near me:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/ontario-builds-first-bridge-for-animals-near-sudbury-1.1148087

Yep, it's the damage figures which are ultimately the most persuasive arguments for building these crossings. In that article, "section of Hwy 69 that sees large numbers of wildlife collisions" and "very high moose population, as well as a re-introduced elk population" are important elements. Hitting a deer at speed can be inconvenient at the very least, but hitting an elk or moose tends to be several kinds of expensive. When the case can be made for spending less in the long run by giving the animals an alternative to crossing via the road surface, that gets the attention of the people who are in a position to make these projects happen.

 

[Owain Taggart]

You're right on the money, no pun intended

 

[Kestra]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

It's a fairly frequent occurrence on some freeways. Your Loc: field says you're in the Bay Area, and when I lived there I knew quite a few people who had high-speed introductions to deer while driving at night along I-280 between Pacifica and Palo Alto.

That's such a beautiful stretch (I often took 280 into the city from SJ). But I never felt comfortable driving on it at night, so I'd usually take 101 back. I had no idea that deer were a problem there though and I don't think I saw a single one in the two years that I lived in the Bay Area. They are many of them out here in IL where I grew up though, so I'm used to watching out for them. My brother has hit one and a long time ago, my dad hit a buck whose antlers crashed through the windshield. Luckily he ducked in time, or that could have been a lot worse for him.

 

[tomalak301]

I had a little scary moment coming home from work tonight. I was on the Freeway, going about 60 MPH and saw one deer cross it. There were barely any cars on the road so I slowed down just a little bit. Then I saw another deer like right as I was driving by and he ended up hitting the backside of my car. That's never happened to me before and I just couldn't slow down. I didn't see any damage on the car but it's not every day a deer hits you on the Freeway. I'll check again tomorrow, but I'm actually still a little shaken by this. The deer hits you, you hear a loud bang and that's just something that's not supposed to happen.

It's a fairly frequent occurrence on some freeways. Your Loc: field says you're in the Bay Area, and when I lived there I knew quite a few people who had high-speed introductions to deer while driving at night along I-280 between Pacifica and Palo Alto.

That's such a beautiful stretch (I often took 280 into the city from SJ). But I never felt comfortable driving on it at night, so I'd usually take 101 back. I had no idea that deer were a problem there though and I don't think I saw a single one in the two years that I lived in the Bay Area. They are many of them out here in IL where I grew up though, so I'm used to watching out for them. My brother has hit one and a long time ago, my dad hit a buck whose antlers crashed through the windshield. Luckily he ducked in time, or that could have been a lot worse for him.

I'm not sure if Deer is a problem or just a happenstance. I take that road all the time, especially at night, and what happened last night has never happened to me before.

 

[Melakon]

How do they encourage the deer to use overpass crossings? Is the area bordering the highways fenced to lead them to the overpass? Are salt licks set up near it or something?