Experienced a dear miss this morning

[Willow]

On the rural portion of my ride to work I pass between several hay fields.  Normally my head will be moving scanning both sides of the road.  The PRV along that stretch is 45 mph and I was pretty close to it.  I was struggling a bit in the cold growing dawn with fogging on the visor and glasses at lower speeds.  I must've looked down for a moment, or maybe more.  All I saw of it was its white flag and tawny hindquarters just above the headlight. I saw it neither approach nor depart.  It appeared (pun possibly intended) to cross diagonally toward me from my left to right and passed easily within two feet of the front wheel.

I hope it scared the deer as much as it scared me.   

[tank_post142]

do you keep spare clothes at work?  

[RainMaker]

Hope you were wearing your brown pants.

[Willow]

Hope you were wearing your brown pants.

No, I was wearing navy blue so at least the moisture wasn't readily discernible.    

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Wow. That's one of those "destiny" moments. If you had tied your shoes a little faster or ridden a little faster life would have changed. And, you never know, if you had seen it and slowed down, another one might have ran into the side of your bike. Sure glad "the powers that be" were looking out for you.

I haven't hit a deer yet but I've been hit by two that ran into the side of my truck, both on my way to work. Both happened when I decided at the last minute not to ride.

I'll be riding in the morning, reading your post may slow me down just enough to avoid a "destiny" moment of my own.

[Big Rig]

Two trains of thought...slow speed, or fast speed...slower would have still missed and faster you could have been to work already...

If SE reads this, maybe he would say that god told them to run across the road...

Willow, glad you are safe

[Disco]

Willow, glad you are safe 

+1!

[Karen]

Glad you are unscathed and the deer was also. Makes us stop & think.

[Robert]

Glad your safe but please have some consideration of us. If anything happened to you we would have to break in another moderator 

[RP#62]

Glad you're ok.  You know what Bill Cosby used to say - first you say it, then you do it.
-RP

[Fudd]

What's up with all the deer near misses all of a sudden?  Several of my "dear" friends have had close encounters in the last week.

Be extra careful on the backroads especially around dusk and dawn.  If you see a deer cross in front of you look out, they sometime like to cross the road in groups.

http://www.youtube.com/v/f1q9Sw_ggJQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0

[Big IV]

It is that time of year when the deer are out being randy which can be bad for those of use on two wheels. I'm glad you're safe.

[BigAl]

Moments like that really make you feel alive and thankful.

[Daniel Meyer]

Glad you missed!

My theory (supported by a LOT of recent observation) is that the deer have discovered how to teleport.

[Willow]

My theory (supported by a LOT of recent observation) is that the deer have discovered how to teleport.

I believe that.  I have interviewed many survivors of deer encounters and have experienced a collision with said beast myself.  It's shocking how many report that the combatant seemed to have materialized directly in front of the targeted vehicle.

I also suspect that within the deer world there is a popular pastime that could best be described as a cross between Russian roulette and playing chicken with moving vehicles.  They seemed to have picked up this delinquent behavior from rogue squirrels.    

[RoadKill]

It's all those dang 'deer X-ing' signs. They need to move those deer crossings to safer places ! And they look a lot like bus stop signs ,instead of human stick figures on them,...DEER stick figures! Bambi needs to catch a bus some where else!             

[BamaDrifter64]

Reminds me of my one near "deer"th experience.  I had flown to Nebraska to pick up a new to me bike.  I was out in the boonies on a small country road in late November.  As it started to get dark, I discovered the headlight was pointing straight down at the front fender.  Couldn't see 15 feet in front of me.  I had no tools to fix it and the interstate was about 10 miles away, so I figured gun it, hurry up and get to the interstate before it got totally dark and then I could follow a car or truck on the interstate, get to my stop for the night and fix it the next morning.  So here I am, doing about 65-70 in the dusky dark on a small country road seeing about 15 feet in front of me when a huge deer is straddling the middle line, head in my lane.  I had ZERO time to react when I saw him...and passed by him probably within 6 inches...he never budged.  Sheer luck I missed him.  If I had hit him, no telling how long I would have laid out there till found.  Taught me an important lesson about never overdrive your headlights, regardless of the reason. 

Dave

[clintsdivco]

Sure glad you missed him, or he missed you.  That story takes me back to last year when one of them rascals landed on my front fender.  Unfortunately I didn't even see him, which might have been why the strainer (underwear) that I was wearing stayed clean.

Clint

[WamegoRob]

Although this is more 45mph-ish, here's an example of just how out-of-nowhere these guys can appear.

(Skip the boring part by jumping to 24 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PvOQRmJ-0c#t=0m24s

[R J]

My son called a couple of hours ago and said he hit a deer.   I figured he had his little Hyundai coupe, but he had a big 3500 Chevy with the snow blade on it.

He said he never saw the deer until it came over the blade in pieces.....   One of his customers had him come get the truck to do some service work on it tomorrow.   

I think he said he was going back to the car wash to see if he can get all the blood and guts off  of it.

Asked him if he was ok, he said if you consider a big brown spot in your lily white shorts,  ok, then I guess I'm ok.   Asked if he wanted me to come out, he said no, he'd settle down before too long and get to bed.    I just tried to call and got the answering machine on the 1st ring, so that tells me he has gone to bed.   I'll see him in the morning.

[grandpaweaver]

What's up with all the deer near misses all of a sudden?  Several of my "dear" friends have had close encounters in the last week.

Be extra careful on the backroads especially around dusk and dawn.  If you see a deer cross in front of you look out, they sometime like to cross the road in groups.

http://www.youtube.com/v/f1q9Sw_ggJQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0

Did you see that, those things can fly, need 7 more and a fat guy in a sled

[Hoser]

It's all those dang 'deer X-ing' signs. They need to move those deer crossings to safer places ! And they look a lot like bus stop signs ,instead of human stick figures on them,...DEER stick figures! Bambi needs to catch a bus some where else!             

An actual conversation with a man who hit a deer in my fire district and wrecked his car.
What was the deer doing here? I passed a deer crossing sign a couple miles back.  My answer? I dunno, guess he couldn't read.   He kind of frowned and then started laughing. 

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

One of my wife's brothers hit a very rotten deer with a bush hog a few years ago. 

[Momz]

ALL FOREST RATS MUST DIE! 
But not by collisions with Valkyries and certain other makes of M/Cs.
JMHO