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I just hit a deer at 40 mph in my 2012 Turbo. I was going about 60 and he came out of nowhere. I managed to brake HARD and scrub off about 20 mph, but it still felt very fast when I hit him. The front of my car is extremely low, so I was sure I would take out the deer’s legs and he would come straight into my windshield. I’ve seen deer heads and hooves come straight through windshields in videos, before, as well as flying shards of glass go into the driver’s eyes, so I ducked a bit and put my hand in front of my face. I was positive that my car was going to be badly damaged, as this was going to be a direct hit.
Since I was hard on the brakes, the front of my car was even lower than normal, and the impact took the deer’s legs out from under him and rolled him off my hood. That sent him careening straight into my windshield, directly in front of my face. He slid/ramped off the glass and was launched about six feet into the air, directly over my head. He left a couple tiny hoof scuff marks on my sunroof, but otherwise he completely cleared my entire car. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw him land in the middle of the road, scramble to his feet, and limp away. I went back to check for him and looked for about five minutes, but he was nowhere to be found.
After I called off the search for Bambi, I proceeded to check out my car. I had fully expected the airbags to deploy, the bumper to be crushed, the headlights to be smashed, the hood to be mangled, and the windshield to be shattered. Instead, I was amazed to find very minor damage, which was just as surreal as the impact itself. When the deer rolled off my windshield and it didn’t even crack, I thought I was in a dream. When I got out to look at my car and saw only minor scratches and no dents, I KNEW I was in a dream.
Eventually, I convinced myself that it was real life and proceeded to drive home. In the garage, I found a lot of deer hair, some minor scuff marks on my bumper, along with very small dent near my headlight. I also that realized my hood was slightly bent, but the vast majority of the damage will buff out without a trace. Needless to say, I was baffled and VERY happy!! Moral of the story? If you are going to hit a deer, hit it in a sports car with a very low front end. LOL!!!
How, you should give a class on how to do,what,you did. Any accidents I've seen have resulted in much greater damage to the vehicle and sometimes the driver.
Glad your ok and that the car made it relatively unscathed.
Glad everything worked out for the better. There is a stretch of road I take where the speed limit is 55, but there is a lot of forest area and I feel like my head is on a swivel constantly paying attention to see if anything jumps out.
Thanks for the kind words, guys. I am probably going to use this as an excuse to get a carbon fiber hood. Do you all have any recommendations as to who/what company I should go with? Thanks.
Here are a few more pics of the "worst" of the damage to my fender and hood.
Last edited by NineElevenLover; Dec 11, 2014 at 03:05 PM.
Glad you are OK. Good to see you left a few hairs there to stop the questions.
I hit a deer on my motorcycle at 60 mph. The deer didn't do so well in that encounter - it basically cut her in half. Better to get hit by a sports car if you have the choice.
By the way, just in case anyone thinks that I could have done something differently, should have used my horn, etc... I have LOTS of experience with deer on the road. In this instance, there was absolutely no time to react in that manner... I promise you. It happened extremely fast and I needed both of my hands to control the car.
Only three weeks ago, I had another encounter with a deer in the same car. This incident was the absolute closest possible encounter anyone can ever have with a deer and should prove to you that I did every single thing I could do when the deer ran out in front of me last night. This testosterone-filled deer also came out of nowhere, and I say this because deer are ALWAYS on the side of the road near my house and I always notice them. I have narrowly avoided collisions on multiple occasions (I have had deer's tails hit my car twice, but never a direct impact), but nothing could be as close as the incident a few weeks ago. This deer was running more slowly than the deer with which I collided last night, but I was still 100% positive that the collision was going to happen. He was running directly for the passenger side door of my car.
I slammed on the brakes hard and swerved into the left lane, as there was no oncoming traffic. Don't worry... I'm qualified to swerve, since I will not blindly swerve off the road or into a tree, etc. I also laid on my horn, as I'm fully aware that deer DO respond to horns. The deer heard the horn, put on his brakes (almost looked like something out of a cartoon), but slipped on the asphalt, fell down, and slid towards my car. I braced for impact, 100% positive that my passenger door was going to be destroyed.
To my surprise, all I heard was a very faint "tap" sound on my door. When I got home to check the damage, I saw a WET NOSE MARK on my door, along with a thin, long mark that was most likely from an antler (this one was a buck). The antler mark didn't even get through the clear-coat and can be buffed out. Absolutely amazing. I thought I was lucky on that occasion, but little did I know that my good luck was going to manifest itself in even more amazing ways only three weeks in the future.
Edit: Wow, according to Wikipedia, “The deer of Virginia can run faster than their predators and have been recorded at speed 75 km/h (47 mph)”
Last edited by NineElevenLover; Dec 11, 2014 at 04:36 PM.
Pay particular attention in the time right before dusk until about an hour after. Deer are really active during that period.
Ya, they are definitely nocturnal creatures. This particular incident happened just before 10:30 PM. I seem to notice them most just after 9 PM, now that it's getting dark so early. Then they come out in full force right around and shortly after midnight (in my experience, at least).
While I have no data to back this up, the number of deer in the area seems to be higher than I've ever seen it, and I've been driving these same back roads for about 18 years.
This mating season has been the worst one that I can remember. I have seen hundreds of deer in the past few months - on the side of the road, running through the road, standing in the road... you name it. I've been seeing deer corpses all over the place, too. Honestly, there were so many that I think I became numb to their presence.
Before they get all horny during mating seasons, deer are (for the most part) pretty good at noticing cars, staying where they are, and not freaking out. The mating season changes all that, though. There are lots of crazy horny deer, both male and female, that run across the road at full speed, without even missing a beat. Now that I think about it, the females are probably running away from the males. Hah. They are so hopped up on sex drugs, they don't even bother to look both ways before they cross the street like mama deer taught them!!
I was driving in PA in a divided road over the summer at 40-50 mph and two deer ran out onto the street. My wife was in the car and it happens so fast you cant even make a noise. I ended up splitting the deep one to the right an one to the left. Had a car been coming the other way it would have resulted in my hitting a deer.
I consider myself lucky, very lucky. It was more of a reaction than a skillful maneuver to avoid impact. The wife was very impressed and I sweat through my shirt in record time.
Originally Posted by NineElevenLover
By the way, just in case anyone thinks that I could have done something differently, should have used my horn, etc... I have LOTS of experience with deer on the road. In this instance, there was absolutely no time to react in that manner... I promise you. It happened extremely fast and I needed both of my hands to control the car.
Only three weeks ago, I had another encounter with a deer in the same car. This incident was the absolute closest possible encounter anyone can ever have with a deer and should prove to you that I did every single thing I could do when the deer ran out in front of me last night. This testosterone-filled deer also came out of nowhere, and I say this because deer are ALWAYS on the side of the road near my house and I always notice them. I have narrowly avoided collisions on multiple occasions (I have had deer's tails hit my car twice, but never a direct impact), but nothing could be as close as the incident a few weeks ago. This deer was running more slowly than the deer with which I collided last night, but I was still 100% positive that the collision was going to happen. He was running directly for the passenger side door of my car.
I slammed on the brakes hard and swerved into the left lane, as there was no oncoming traffic. Don't worry... I'm qualified to swerve, since I will not blindly swerve off the road or into a tree, etc. I also laid on my horn, as I'm fully aware that deer DO respond to horns. The deer heard the horn, put on his brakes (almost looked like something out of a cartoon), but slipped on the asphalt, fell down, and slid towards my car. I braced for impact, 100% positive that my passenger door was going to be destroyed.
To my surprise, all I heard was a very faint "tap" sound on my door. When I got home to check the damage, I saw a WET NOSE MARK on my door, along with a thin, long mark that was most likely from an antler (this one was a buck). The antler mark didn't even get through the clear-coat and can be buffed out. Absolutely amazing. I thought I was lucky on that occasion, but little did I know that my good luck was going to manifest itself in even more amazing ways only three weeks in the future.
Edit: Wow, according to Wikipedia, “The deer of Virginia can run faster than their predators and have been recorded at speed 75 km/h (47 mph)”
