November 16, 2004

Near Miss

Last evening I was driving along Rt-156 here in Nottingham. As I rounded a bend in the road, a large deer was standing in the middle of my lane.

I slammed on the brakes, and swerved. Unlike the stereotypical deer, this one reacted to my headlights, and started to move. Now I was faced with the prospect of having to correctly guess which way the deer would jump so I could successfully swerve around it.

Fortunately, both me and the deer guessed right, and it bounded off the road to the left. I suspect its heart was beating pretty fast like mine.

A very close friend -- who I will let make their own decision whether to identify themself -- went through a similar thing recently, with less satisfying results. It seems that we are not alone in this. According to this story in the Daily Star Online, deer collisions are up.

Almost everyone who drives in this area has a story about hitting a deer — or at the very least, a near miss.

And as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, body shops gear up for the deluge of cars with crushed hoods and shattered headlights caused by deer-vs.-car accidents.
Posted by jackhodgson at November 16, 2004 01:36 PM