Deer in the Road

I am sooo freaking tired of all the deer, and being petrified of driving at night time!

What is with all the deer? And the hazard of them being all over the place.

Last year I was driving in a well populated area just at dark, down a 35 mph road. Driving a panel van. And right from the hill of line of trees shoots down a deer. Never even saw it. Just a bang. Then immediately once I stopped. BANG. Another comes out from the bushes and slams into the side of the van. So I get out and the one slid across the road, dead. The other must have broke both its front legs hitting the van, and was violently running kicking with it back legs back and forth on the road, till somehow it ran off. All of this was happening in rush hour traffic. Traffic stopped in both directions to see this violent display.

A few months ago, I take a trip to colorado and decided to count some deer bodies as I drive along. I stopped at 30.

The other day my brother calls me. My brother "Hey does your body shop do insurance work?" Me: "Why?" My brother: "I hit another deer." Me: "Not really, most work for dealerships. What's your deductable?"

Last night I was driving home and of course I am in fear of hitting a deer. So after driving on the highway on full alert mode, I make it to my exit. I am very happy. I get to driving down the road 35mph and what pops its head out just to make me almost jump out of my Jeep? A very large buck.

I am just so sick and tired of all the deer. I really think there should be some sort of way to prevent deer from crossing the road. Somehow. A specialized fence or something.

The deer population seems to be getting higher and higher.

In the early 1900's there were an estimated 500,000 white-tailed deer in the United States. Unregulated commercial hunting and subsistence hunting threatened to eliminate the white-tailed deer from much of its range. At that time, many state wildlife agencies were formed with the goal of conserving the nation's depleted wildlife resources. Hunting regulations were put into place, and the harvest of antlerless (female) deer was prohibited. The rebound of white-tailed deer populations that followed is considered a wildlife management success story. Today there are over 20 million deer in the United States and numbers are rising.

Source

What do you think ATS? How can I feel safe to drive my vehicle, without a suicidal deer kamikazee aiming me down?

Gee I am SO FREAKING SORRY that wild roaming animals, whose homes those roads bisect, are RUINING YOUR NIGHTS. Slow down, leadfoot, and pay attention. Oh and do you ever think about how all our light pollution disturbs their night life. Somebody ought to come shine a spot in your face when you're trying to sleep, or drive some police vehicles with sirens and flashing lights by your place constantly as you try to rest.

For 7 years I traveled 100 miles each way to work. 99% of it on the interstate through eastern Montana. I tallied 5 deer and a coyote that I hit, another deer that caused me to ruin a set of Goodyears while trying to avoid it, and hours of anger management classes. Depending on the time of year too....most or all of it was in the dark.

It was exhausting. Literally. 100 miles of interstate shouldn't be that hard to drive...but I was mentally exhausted by the time I got to work. Then again when I got home. 12 hour days didn't help much either.

I felt like the nerdy kid in high school with the big "HIT ME" signed taped to his back.

Once, right as I turned off my street onto the road that went to the interstate, after about 50 yards here comes a heard of deer. I almost hit them before I even got started. I actually jumped out of my car, and tried to chase them down on foot while yelling and screaming..all at 4:30 AM.
Then a cop came by..... fortunately he was laughing too hard at me to even think of trying to do anything....

At the risk of riling PETA up, there was a point where I was all for hunting them to extinction!!

reply to post by jeantherapy


See webpirate knows where I am coming from.

It is terrifying!

I have no desire to hit the deer. I always drive the speed limit and use my brights whenever possible.
I rarely hit animals when they run in front of me. I usually pay great attention while driving.

It is exhausting and usually now I try not to drive at night time because of it, but now with the time change and winter the night comes so early and you almost have to some times.

reply to post by MoosKept240


Yeah....I missed way more than I ever hit. It was honestly frightening to drive at times. Especially during the times of year when I was driving home at duck.
The hardest time at all to see. Slowing down doesn't always help.
Add icy roads into the mix and it was even worse. There's a section of road I had to travel. Center divided interstate over a quick rise in elevation. Roads in the winter were usually bad there if no where else. One morning, I had a heard of deer come out at me. Across the divide. I slowed. Changed lanes to avoid some. Then out of nowhere..another one jumps the concrete divider.
Bam!

There are state vehicles that clean up the interstate almost every day. Or several times a week minimum. And you can still see at least 1 deer corpse almost every 5-10 miles.

What's worse....I usually drove a car to work..to save on gas. Unless it was bad weather. I totaled a Camry. Bought a new Fusion. It got hit twice. NEVER ONCE...while I was in my big F-150 during bad weather did a dear even look at me!!!!

Don't you have hunters out there?? Usually hunting takes care of deer population. I do feel bad for them though, I mean it is their territory.

Driving is inherently dangerous, I'd be personally willing to consider this a problem just as soon as we get all the geriatrics with pacemakers off the road, as well as the drunks. I am from Wisconsin and have certainly had deer encounters but we humans have always come out on top, machines are replaceable. I can't say the same for my fallen friend who had her life taken by another motorist that was drunk as hell. Everyone is in such a hurry all the time, to get to where? Human activities are only important to us, the deer don't care that we have to work in the office for 40 years and mulch all the trees - they just want to live in the present moment, with no silly thoughts of soaking their feet in epsom salts and hot bath later because 'life is so hard'

As your post shows the deer population is out of control. There is a suburb near me that I used to live in. The deer population is totally out of control there. I owned a lot that was one and a quarter acre in size and had three herds of at least ten to fifteen deer each come through every night. Local highways were littered with dead deer on a daily basis. All the uncontrolled development there took away their habitat. So they just lived where they could. Usually grazing on peoples landscaping and bedding down wherever they could find room to hide.

People in this suburb wanted something done and complained to the town. They sent out the cops who baited the deer and then shot them. Of coarse the PETA idiots got their panties in a bunch and they had to stop. I personally thought it was a good idea because they dressed out the deer and gave the meat to local shelters to help feed folks who had no food. So now the population of deer is out of control again and the spring will bring another load of dead deer on the side of the road and losses to the insurance companies. Oh yeah and repair headaches to people who drive the local roads.

The human population is out of control, get over it. Maybe you should eat a deer instead of whatever it is they serve at McDonalds.

Aaannnndd with that...
My wife who is a paramedic just came home early after being in the back of an ambulance that hit a deer!!!

Not an exaggeration either...lol. This just happened overnight, and I just learned of it a few minutes ago....

reply to post by webpirate


It is just crazy. I just got back home, and less than a mile from my house I had to stop to let 9 deer cross.

I will admit they are very beautiful animals. And it did leave a nice feeling seeing the whole family scamper off.

But it tears my heart knowing that one day, they will probably share the same fate as so many others.

And they blend into the background so well, I didn't notice them until almost to late.

reply to post by lonegurkha


Here in kansas they tried something like that, where the local police went to a few larger parks we had, to try and thin them out. But alas, still the problem is out of control.

reply to post by MoosKept240


Oddly it was working here untill the animal people got involved. Then the car went back to being the predator. Wonder what they will think when there are so many that they start hitting them.