I've previously posted about
the dangers of vehicle collisions with deer. The photo above shows a Pontiac Vibe after a young buck that had been hit by a different car
entered through the windshield and exited through the rear window.
And I saw the cow from 'Twister.' That's what I saw coming straight at us. I saw it impact the windshield, and I felt the rush of air."
Trooper Frahning said that despite how quickly everything happened, the Blakes did everything right. They didn't veer from the road in an attempt to avoid the deer, and Sue Blake stayed calm. The Blakes were traveling at about 55 miles per hour, the posted speed limit. The car's airbags didn't go off, he said, because the deer flew so high it never touched the Vibe's bumper.
The trooper said his unit responds to about
6-10 deer/vehicle crashes per night this time of the year. Further details re this incident will be available at the StarTribune for a day or two (newspaper stories tend to be ephemeral on the 'net).
...and I knew someone who died when the deer came right through the windshield and into his face. These people were very, very lucky.
ReplyDeleteMy father lives in upstate NY, where this is constantly happening. Once, in broad daylight, he saw a deer standing at the side of the road, clearly getting up the nerve to cross.
ReplyDeleteHe managed to slam on his brakes just in time, and ended up stopping right next to the deer. The deer (it was a male with large antlers), instead of walking around the car, attempted to jump OVER it.
He landed with a giant thud on the roof, slid off the other side in a tangle of limbs, straightened himself out with an air of I-totally-did-that-on-purpose, and kicked the passenger side window with both his hind legs (thankfully it was closed).
THEN the deer crossed the road.
I think this is proof that animals are capable of going insane.
This took my breath away! Oh, geez, my heart goes out to this family. It is eerily similar to the damage done by an accident my daughters and I were in a few months ago only it was a person, a suicide.
ReplyDeleteWe were on a major 3-lane highway, at night (no lights on that stretch, very dark), and I was in the far, left-hand lane going almost 65-mph (the posted speed limit). A man stepped into the path of my car from the center lane, and with no time to swerve, I could only slam on my breaks. The impact shattered the windshield and left a gaping hole, but the man traveled over the top instead of through it (thank God), so our air bags didn't deploy, either. I was able to steer the car to the center medium by rolling down my window, sticking my head out and guiding it to a stop, all the while spitting glass and dirt out of my mouth. (My daughters and I were picking tiny shards of glass out of our skin for weeks afterward.)
There are no words to describe the sudden appearance of a person (or animal) where they do not belong. It was life-changing and something we will have to live with forever.