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Just Deer

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3K views 50 replies 31 participants last post by  Gary Thompson 
#1 ·
Did you ever hit a Deer doing 75 MPH?? I did, and it made a mess out of my front end of my wife's car. Picture's will follow when I get home. Right now I'm in Chicago. Don't ask. Plastic cars can't take much of a beating. It blew out the thing that takes the place of your front bumper. It screwed up my Radiator, the AC condenser, the power steering pump( a antler went through it). The bracket that supports the Radiator. The bracket that supports the Power Steering. Many dents in my hood from where the antlers hit. And numerous small brackets.

The Deer was 7 point. They count them different in Minnesota. That's where it happened. The state trooper told me that. It also happened at about 1230 in the AM, and it was darker than shit outside.

Since it was a Deer hit, My deductible is only 100 bucks. Total damage was in the neighborhood of 3500 bucks.It now sitting in Lurverne Mn. In a body shop. They are going to make it drive-able so I can get it home. My insurance paid for the loaner car I'm driving a 2013 Hundai(sp). A nice car.
 
#2 ·
Wow! Glad you're okay. Hitting a deer at 75 MPH could have taken you out along with the deer!

Plastic cars are supposed to collapse to protect the occupants. Evidently, it worked.

Good luck with the rest of your trip! I know you weren't crazy about making the trip in the first place.

Glad you're okay... insurance will fix the car.
 
#3 ·
I've never hit a deer, saw a lot get hit and a lot of road kill ones driving back and forth from Pullman for 4.5 years for college. I did hit a porcupine on the way home one time though, I didn't know what it was at the time but when I stopped to get gas I saw all of the quils sticking out of my tires, good thing I had just got new tires with nice thick tread, or it probably would have punctured it! I did watch a semi hit an escaped cow on the hwy too... their wasn't much left of the cow and it messed the truck up pretty good too.
 
#10 ·
Glad you are ok OMJ. I hit one once about 25years ago in a Ford F150, I could not believe how much damage it did to my truck and I was only doing about 27 mph on a dirt road.........hitting one at 75 had to have been crazy!
 
#11 ·
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I was in the process of setting the cruise control. I came all the way through Montana and S/D with out seeing any deer. I got one mile into Minnesota and the damn deer was there. I hit it with the right front and also ran over it. I tipped to the left and the air bags didn't let go. Funny, I though that hitting a stone wall at 5 MPH they would go off. I guess a deer is different. What is funny is that it didn't even bother me.

As for driving at night , I was kind of in a hurry to get where I was going. As it stood I only had to get to Chicago. My son took up the slack. Last night I stopped at a rest area and that's where I spent the night. I had the money for a Motel but didn't want to spend it.............I guess you could call me cheap. Oh well, I'm still here.
 
#13 ·
It's a good thing the air bags didn't go off... they are very, very expensive to replace and will sometimes total a vehicle due to the expense.

You can now put a little black decal on your fender that is the silhouette of a deer (same as fighter pilots did on their planes during WWII for enemy aircraft they shot down). One of my co-workers has a deer silhouette and a bicycle silhouette on her Ford Ranger. She must travel a winding, narrow country road through a forest to drive to work and she's hit both a deer and a bicyclist (he was okay) while driving to work.

I don't know if the guys in the Body Shop came up with the decals or if they are something you can buy. Anyway, you've earned a deer silhouette.
 
#15 ·
You live in friggin Montana and had to drive all the way to MN to t-bone a deer... go figure. Good to hear you're OK, they don't all end that well for the bi-peds.
That is what I thought too. I grew up in Flathead & Lake counties and everybody I knew had hit a deer with their car or truck!! What a pain in the butt, but it was also never very hard to fill a tag when hunting season came around (not with your bumper!!)
Down by the Big Hole & Dillon, look out for elk, they will certainly trash your ride if you hit one of those!!
 
#18 ·
The number of whitetail deer in the upper mid-west is insane. A number of years ago I spend time fishing the spring creeks in SW Wisconsin and one had to be extremely careful on the back country roads at dusk as deer were everywhere. At the time the State was estimating that more than 200,000 deer were being killed annually by cars That is a lot of car/deer encounters.

Curt
 
#19 ·
It is odd that you managed to miss the deer on the roads in Montana (rated 5th) and hit one in Minnesota (rated 10th). Notice Oregon, Washington and Idaho are not even listed as states where the incidents of vehicle-deer accidents are common.

So where does your state rank? Here's a list, from the highest risk to the least:

West Virginia: 1 in 41.91
Iowa: 1 in 67.09
Michigan: 1 in 70.36
South Dakota: 1 in 75.81
Montana: 1 in 82.45
Pennsylvania: 1 in 84.63
North Dakota: 1 in 91.11
Wisconsin: 1 in 95.68
Arkansas: 1 in 99.24
Minnesota: 1 in 99.51
Virginia:1 in 101.97
Nebraska: 1 in 110.60
Wyoming: 1 in 114.49
Maryland: 1 in 118.75
Ohio: 1 in 121.09
Mississippi: 1 in 131.35
Missouri: 1 in 133.88
South Carolina: 1 in 137.21
New York: 1 in 145.45
North Carolina: 1 in 147.27
Delaware: 1 in 149.86
Georgia: 1 in 149.88
Alabama: 1 in 150.32
Indiana: 1 in 159.61
Kentucky: 1 in 161.12
Vermont: 1 in 170.28
 
#25 ·
It is odd that you managed to miss the deer on the roads in Montana (rated 5th) and hit one in Minnesota (rated 10th). Notice Oregon, Washington and Idaho are not even listed as states where the incidents of vehicle-deer accidents are common.

So where does your state rank? Here's a list, from the highest risk to the least:

West Virginia: 1 in 41.91
Iowa: 1 in 67.09
Michigan: 1 in 70.36
South Dakota: 1 in 75.81
Montana: 1 in 82.45
Pennsylvania: 1 in 84.63
North Dakota: 1 in 91.11
Wisconsin: 1 in 95.68
Arkansas: 1 in 99.24
Minnesota: 1 in 99.51
Virginia:1 in 101.97
Nebraska: 1 in 110.60
Wyoming: 1 in 114.49
Maryland: 1 in 118.75
Ohio: 1 in 121.09
Mississippi: 1 in 131.35
Missouri: 1 in 133.88
South Carolina: 1 in 137.21
New York: 1 in 145.45
North Carolina: 1 in 147.27
Delaware: 1 in 149.86
Georgia: 1 in 149.88
Alabama: 1 in 150.32
Indiana: 1 in 159.61
Kentucky: 1 in 161.12
Vermont: 1 in 170.28
Well I cant speak for Idaho or Oregon, but probably why Washington didn't make the list is because everyone is stuck on F'ing I-5 doing 2 mph. Shit deer go from Everett to Seattle faster than you can in your toyota!
 
#20 ·
I usually don't drive in Montana after dark due to the high numbers of deer. I've seen them run in herds of up to 100 deer. That was up by Sheridan, Mt.. But when I'm traveling nothing counts except getting there. So when I get back to my car tomorrow and head home, I'm stopping at a motel. Wife says no more driving at night.

I'm going to pick up some white tape and write the letters with an arrow on it pointing to the damage. "Deer Hit". It will all be fixed on my return home. I hope the tape can withstand high speed.
 
#24 ·
I'm glad you are ok after hitting a deer, I've nearly greased two this summer and I'm not really sure how I missed either one. My sister who lived in Montana for 10 years has a theory that deer are people who have died and are in purgatory and the only way that they can leave purgatory is to dive in front of a car and die horribly (again) to pay penance for their human sins.
 
#26 ·
My sister who lived in Montana for 10 years has a theory that deer are people who have died and are in purgatory and the only way that they can leave purgatory is to dive in front of a car and die horribly (again) to pay penance for their human sins.
Are squirrels really stupid people who are stuck in purgatory? Or maybe people who couldn't make a decision during their lifetime?

Either way, good job on not dying, OMJ. You haven't hit 100k posts yet, you still have work to do.
 
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