Deer played chicken with wife in our Durango

[Hawkman]

Wife was on her way to see her mother in the hospital yesterday. Deer came from the right shoulder. She couldn’t brake because a pickup was tailgating at the same time.

Wife is fine. Deer kept running. (Believe me I looked for it.

Appt at body shop in the morning.

 

[oe542bob]

That’s awful, good thing there were no injuries to the wife. I just had an incident with a deer 2 mornings ago. Going about 45 mph, 2 lane road, a deer came from my left running. Ran into the drivers side of my truck hitting the wheel flare and then hitting the side rear door. Split the wheel flare about 12” from the bottom up and put a dent in the rear door. I think the door dent can be massaged out with a dent guy. Flare is broken but it isn’t noticeable.
Never had a chance to do anything to try to avoid the collision.

 

[diymirage]

If I have time to respond when I see a deer first thing I do is kill the headlights

Don't know if it works or not but I've been driving here in Michigan for over 20 years and have never hit one (one in 61 odds of hitting a deer each time I get behind the wheel)

 

[Hanover Fiste]

She couldn’t brake because a pickup was tailgating at the same time.

If a deer runs out in front of me, I'm hitting the brakes regardless of who's behind me. The pickup shouldn't have been tailgating her.

 

[Grams]

Deer are fragile animals and cannot survive even minor collisions. It ‘s most likely that deer died later.

Things have changed since the universal-use of driving-lights which are not easily doused, IMO.

I’ve killed almost a dozen deer over the last 25-30 years here in “deer-country” (Texas Hill Country)…. 2 with an airplane* and the rest with vehicles.
I learned that a deer is reluctant to run in the direction of darkness….they run toward where it’s illuminated….. that momentarily turning OFF then back ON landing-lights/head-lights ….they will STOP (and, many times Reverse) their movement.
We’ve seen deer here on back-country roads heading toward the road… turn our lights OFF for just a moment…then back on…. they’ve stopped running in front of the vehicle.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in a lot of highway-traffic.

* I first experienced this landing at night out here on our private runway. There are so many deer on the ranch that I would “buzz” the runway at night to “clear them off” …then quickly return for the actual landing. THAT was the ONLY time I hit a deer…. after the buzz-job.
(I imagine they decide the airplane is not actually a threat so don’t make any attempt to avoid it on the subsequent landing).
BUT…. when I stopped the low-level buzz-job…. and instead, …when I see the group heading toward the brightly-illuminated area my landing-lights have lit-up…. I momentarily switched the lights OFF….then back ON…and the deer had stopped and reversed their movement.
Ever-after that’s what I did…. Momentary switch the lights OFF….then back ON…. and have not hit a deer since.

 

[Hawkman]

If I have time to respond when I see a deer first thing I do is kill the headlights

Don't know if it works or not but I've been driving here in Michigan for over 20 years and have never hit one (one in 61 odds of hitting a deer each time I get behind the wheel)

Killing the headlights wasn’t an option. 0800 hours. Morning traffic.

Guessing this deer was suicidal.

 

[Bigskyroadglide]

Looks like maybe the hood got spared, fender, front end, grill and headlight. That's 5k to 8k right there, including paint and labor. Should not hit car fax, covered under compressive?

 

[RamLife1500]

Wife was on her way to see her mother in the hospital yesterday. Deer came from the right shoulder. She couldn’t brake because a pickup was tailgating at the same time.

Wife is fine. Deer kept running. (Believe me I looked for it.

Appt at body shop in the morning.
View attachment 578163

So sorry that happened. Especially when she was going to the hospital. Are you sure that deer is ok? lol

 

[Hawkman]

If I could have found it, they would have been out of of their misery. Then transported to our local wild game processing business.

Durango has been in the shop since 01/09. The shop has had to get two additional supplemental payments from our INS company.