Look at the innocent and beautiful buck (young dear) peering through a car window. A herd of Deer’s is an enjoyable sight, especially when they run, they look so majestic. However, their running around in the suburban areas could cause property and bodily harm. This story illustrates a couple of such instances that I came across. In both cases, a Deer decided to outsmart a moving vehicles, but you will read how those maneuvers turned out to be in rest of the story.
Before delving into the stories, let’s look at a summary of collateral damage caused by deer’s
Facts and Statistics: Deer Vehicle Collisions
During deer season, which generally runs from October through December, there is a dramatic increase in the movement of the deer population. Many of these deer find their way onto highways and into suburban neighborhoods. As a result, more deer-vehicle collisions occur in this period than at any other time of year.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, from 1975 to the mid-2000s, there was a general upward trend in deaths from collisions with animals. However, this trend has leveled off in the past few years. There were 164 deaths from collisions with animals in 2021 occurring most often during October-December.
According to data from State Farm, U.S. drivers had an estimated 1.8 million animal collision insurance claims in the U.S. between July 2022 and June 2023, down from 1.9 million from the same period a year ago. Pennsylvania had the highest estimated number of auto claims (153,397). However, drivers in West Virginia had the highest likelihood of hitting an animal. While the types of animals involved in collisions are diverse, deer are the top animal struck.
Top Five States 2022-2023 for Likelihood of Animal Involved Claims from a Collision (1)
1) Between July 2022 and June 2023.
(2) States with the same odds receive the same rank.
(3) Highest number of claims estimated at 153,397.
Source: State Farm®.
An Eyewitness Story of a Dare Devil Deer
On a Thursday evening, I was jogging on a trail, parallel to John R road going south. A few events happened in front of St. Mary of the Hills Roman Catholic Church. A beautiful buck (a young Deer), decided to cross John R road from west to east (toward the church) sprinting very fast (he must be getting late to join the evening prayer gathering in the church). His sprinting strides were so majestic, but only for a second. Since it was 5ish in the evening, there was a lot of traffic on John R road going north. When the buck was near the road median, he noticed that a small SUV was going to block his path. So, he made a quick decision to jump over the vehicle’s hood.
I stopped in my tracks to watch that saga that was so fascinating and no less than an Olympian running/jumping feat (he may have made a bet with his buddies that he can jump over a moving vehicle during rush hour or maybe he was trying to impress someone!).
Anyway, since his flight was straight from west to east and in the meantime, the vehicle was moving at its pace toward north, so naturally both entities collided. The buck crashed on the front windshield and got dumped into front seat on passenger side. Thankfully, the timing worked in favor of the vehicle driver and there was nobody sitting in the passenger seat. We can imagine the driver’s state of mind at that moment and quick action to hard brake the vehicle that screeched to a halt. Thankfully, the traffic flow was slow and due to a safe distance, the vehicle behind was able to maneuver on the right to avoid a collision. These events happened right in front of the church, so there you go.
After stopping the vehicle, the driver, a young lady, opened the door, ran toward other side of the vehicle, and got her baby out from the back seat who was sitting in the baby seat. She put the baby seat on the side curb, right in front of the church (Jesus must be watching over them). Then she started working the phone. Those were shocking events, but thanks to St. Mary for saving people from any harm.
The buck may have gotten some scratches from broken glass and thumping into the car seat, but he likely survived (I did not linger around to see what happened next). The buck must have learned a lesson from that episode that he needed to adjust his angle of jump trajectory toward the vehicle’s moving direction. So, in this case, instead of jumping in straight line over the vehicle’s hood, if he had twisted his flight a few degrees north, he would have avoided crashing on the wind shield. This must be his practice run/jump. So, I perceive a coaching opportunity for me to coach neighborhood deer’s how to maneuver in the vehicular traffic.
That saga has become a source of amusement for me. Now when I cross that spot on the trail, I recall those events and laugh.
By the way, a similar deer crash happened to us. Many years ago, Mrs. and I were driving home from a party late at night. I was sitting in the passenger seat (of course obeying the law of the land after attending a party). A deer jumped over our car hood and slid over to the side (since we were driving on a freeway, probably around seventy miles/hr., the impact to that beast was enough to throw him away from our harm’s way). He did not hit the windshield, did not get dumped into the car and did not hit me. Was that a good or bad thing? Well, it depends.
Anyway, pay attention to the traffic warning signs e.g., there are signs like “Caution Deere Crashing Area” and such. You never know when a buck may decide to do dare devil acts around your vehicle.
