[oconeedan]

This past week, there were 2 guys who work for my company that were taken out by deer, on 2 different nights. I don't know them, they work at our other plant. But something to watch out for.
I don't know details, but both guys were seriously injured when hitting a deer with their bikes.
I heard one guy was wearing a skid lid and he ate the ground with his face and broke his nose, and ground all the meat off his hands (I guess no gloves?).
The other guy broke his leg in 3 places and his hip, he'll be out of work for 6 months at least.
The company I work for is small, less than 120 people or so. What a coincidence that 2 got nailed in one week, actually 2 consecutive days.

I ride in deer infested territory, at night, and hope I have developed some habits to reduce my chance for a crash.
Dan

 

[MikeAstringer]

The area where I keep my boat is wooded and I see deer there all the time. Scares the s**t out of me riding out of there at night!

 

[TSK]

It's not the deer I see that worry me.

It's the ones I don't see that scare me.

I ride home after work at night 12:30-1:00 AM. I take the back way home less traffic. I can use my brights and spots to light up the way. I also can slow down to 45 and not be in anyones way. Been lucky so far a couple of close calls but slow speed saved me.

Tim

 

[Lantesh]

Be careful Dan. Keep your speed down, and your eyes open. You sure don't want to be number 3.

When I lived back east I had my share of close calls in a car, and had friends and family that demolished their cars running into deer, but I was always lucky when riding my bike. Out west here in AZ where I live now deer are not an issue, at least not at my elevation. What we do have are coyotes, but thankfully they stay more on the outskirts, and I don't ride out of town after dark.

 

[xrayr]

There are alot of deer in my area too. Always on the lookout for them.....

 

[Old Dad]

some will say buy the deer whistles,,don't waste your money on them,,just whistle "feelings" while you ride and you shouldn't have any problems.

On the serious side, I recently made an unexpected early return home from my mom's, left around 930pm, home at 130pm, only saw one deer, making a u-turn away from the road. Guess I was just lucky, because the deer are out there.

Dan some areas of SC have a hunting season that started Aug.15th,, so be careful.

 

[oconeedan]

It's not the deer I see that worry me.

It's the ones I don't see that scare me.

I ride home after work at night 12:30-1:00 AM. I take the back way home less traffic. I can use my brights and spots to light up the way. I also can slow down to 45 and not be in anyones way. Been lucky so far a couple of close calls but slow speed saved me.

Tim

I do this also, take the back way home, and slow down. I can't go 45, but I do have to make a big effort to not outrun my headlight. Every deer I see gets attention. And try to be ready for the deer I don't see.
I also wear the riding jacket at night, even if too hot to wear during the afternoon going into work.
There is not a single night I go home without seeing them, and seeing 6 or 8 on the side of the road is typical.
Old Dad, it's not the hunting season that is a problem, but the rut (mating season) that makes them even more unpredictable than usual. Deer/vehicle collisions really jump up here from late Sept to late November.
Dan

 

[Old Dad]

I'd say it's both the hunting and the rut, doesn't the rut start later. either way,,be careful.

 

[markspike]

Last week when Eric was in town, we took a ride through the Metro Park and danged if we didn't come upon one grazing at the side of the road, not 3 feet from the edge. In the middle of the day.

 

[Chillable Red]

We've always had a concern here in east Texas with deer jumping out into the roadway, but now we have a newer growing problem with feral hogs. They have around three litters a year and multiplying like crazy! They feed at night and often end up in the roadway. Add to that, their eyes do not reflect in headlights. Last year we had two local PD motorcycle officers, they get to ride their police bikes to and from home, were riding in to work early one morning when one hits a deer and the other a wild hog. Fortunately their injuries were not serious. We've all got to be vigilant while riding, especially at night.

 

[rjtmac]

Deer are something relatively new to our part of the country, Panhandle of Texas. The have migrated here from down south and out of the mountains in New Mexico. Their numbers have increased in last few years to where it is not an unusual thing to see them on late evening and early morning rides.

Mostly it is onesies and twosies but every once in a while, as the other morning on the way to work, saw a group of about 16. Part on the right hand side of the road, part left, and 4 of them in the road. Had to dodge 2 of them. Was in the 'burban and had slowed down. Dumb animals waited until I nearly got to them and darted right in front of me. One cleared me in front, the other turned at the last second, missed him by about a inch if was estimating.

We have another worry around here ... cattle. Seems someone is always losing 4 or 5 cows - mostly 400 - 500 lb calves out of their pastures. A lot of electric fences that they breach and get on the road. They are 4 legged fence posts. They get where they get and just stand their ground. Don't do much trying to get out of the way.

Feral hogs aren't a real problem yet although like everywhere else in Texas they are moving in and multiplying. Luckily we don't have a tremendous amount of habitat around here for them.

Just have to be alert all all times to the 4 legged threats and more so even for the 2 legged threats in their 4 wheeled transportation.

 

[emptynest]

When I was a waitress, I was always coming home after 11:30 pm.

I got to learn the "hot spots" and always was on the look out. Between deer and drunk drivers, I hated driving at that time of night.

Between my husband and I, we've been hit 4 times by deer with cars. I can't imagine getting hit by one on a bike.

Notice - I say being hit by deer, because we don't hit them, they hit us.

 

[Badoshadow]

:shock: I live in a small town in North Dakota. The nice thing about ND is that we have hundreds and hundreds of miles of country highways lining fields. My husband and I went 60 miles the other day and once we left town, we maybe passed 10 trucks on the whole ride. With that said, i think there are more deer in ND than people. They all come out to graze in all of those fields in the evening. Every summer someone on a bike is killed when they hit a deer. It scares me to death. All I can think to do is to be sure that when the sun goes down, we need to stay close to town. But even then we see their eyes on the side of the road everywhere. It's a very uncomfortable feeling.

 

[Coolride]

Last encounter I had, one ran into the side of my car. I can say, they scare me more than the old people down here in Fl..

 

[bikenut]

Between my husband and I, we've been hit 4 times by deer with cars.

DANG, why would anyone allow deer to own or drive a car? Bad enough they run into us.
This has been going on since the invention of moving transport. The steam locomotive cow-catcher was designed with deer in mind. From an evolutionary perspective, one would expect all the vehicle-unaware deer should be extinct by now, in a process of natural elimination. A family of seven deer live on my street and they are wary of cars. You would think those car-smart genes would ensure survival of this species. Is there a natural selection advantage for deer who choose vehicular suicide? How does ramming fast moving machinery create superior offspring?

 

[bluedad]

The only encounter I've ever had with deer, coming home from a gig late one Sat night..I'm driving the little county rd with a county sherriff on my tail. Luckily, I did not have even one beer during that five hr gig..but I notice something gleaming ahead at the side, road level..then all of a sudden two large deer step out on the road.
I slam on my brakes and swerve around them, how I missed hitting one as they crossed the road I'll never know..and how that sherriff missed hitting me I'll never know as he was right on my ass.
My heart was thumping so hard in my chest, but I kept driving like nothing happened.
A couple of miles down the road the sherriff hit the lights. We pulled over, and he just pulled up next to me and asked 'How the **** did you manage to miss those two deer?' we chatted for a minute, and he drove off saying 'Good driving'.

 

[Mentat Ix]

Went cruising the Los Angeles Forest the other day with my brother and saw no less than 3 dead deer on the side of the road. Little ones, all of them, all smashed to bits.

Maybe the were antelope. Heck, I don't know the difference. Either way, I had never seen any out here before.

 

[oconeedan]

My wife tore up the truck when she hit a deer (broad daylight). I had one run into the side of my van I was driving (dark thirty in the morning). I was with a friend in his truck when one ran into his quarter panel tearing it up (broad daylight).

I think this thread did what I wanted to do...raise awareness that the "peak deer collision" season is coming soon. I just hate that two bikers from work are paying the price right now.
Dan

 

[Pretender]

I've yet to see a deer in the San Joaquin Valley ... it's the raccoons and skunks that are crossing the road to get to the browner grass on the other side. On the issue of hitting a deer my Dad hit one while driving a Ford Pinto which totaled the car. Come to think of it he hit a skunk with the car too the smell seemed to never go away!

 

[CajunPirate]

Wild feral hogs here..saw 2 lil oinkers on side of a busy highway feeding in daylight...I was shocked.. seen then on TV, but never in broad daylight.. passing cars never seemed to faze them...was worried they would just keep feeding across the highway... just be viligant and safe.