What usually happens when car hits deer

[bushmaster1313]

Lots and lots of dead deer on the side of the highway in central New Jersey.

Not too long ago a State Trooper, the son of a neighbor died in the line of duty when he lost control after hitting a deer on the Garden State Parkway, but he was probably going over 65.

What is the usual result to a car when it hits a deer at 55-65?

Are the cars that hit deer usually going slower than that at impact?

What happens at 30-40 MPH.

Thanks in advance.

 

[snubbyfan]

We had a '97 Dodge Neon that had 6 or 7 hits.
Usually, we'd get it stopped in time, the deer'd wander off to the side of the road, we'd start going and the stupid thing'd come running out in the road again.
There goes another headlight.
Had 'em run into the side of the car.
I always seem to manage to slow down enough that we didn't hit 'em all that hard.
Smashed grill, dented hood, two or three headlights.
That was a tough little car.

 

[mtgianni]

I have hit 9 in the last 10 years. Speeds from over 75 to around 35. Anything from a new grill, broken fog light housing (55 mph), fenders to full body rebuild. (Subaru outback) I have never lost control and cannot imagine doing so. My guess is he was trying to evade it. Hit it if you must but to stay safe you need to stay on the road.

 

[Chuck24]

What usually happens is an insurance claim and a cookout. BTW my sister totaled her MG on a hog.

 

[cobra44]

Each deer hit is unique to that time and place.
We had a lady hit a deer, it flew up in the air and went through the on coming cars wind shield.

I have seen cars that hit a deer, and most of the damage is done by trying to avoid the animal, rolling the car over, hitting a tree or trees, etc.

As far as totaling a vehicle, the best thing to do is stay on the road, which is very possible. Most people over react to the deer, and end up killing someone else or themselves.

 

[forindooruseonly]

Have hit two. First came out of a creek bed and onto the road, right before a bridge. Two leaps, and I plowed her at 75 mph in a Honda Accord. KO'd the front end, total loss. the car absorbed most of the impact, so she ended up laying across the hood against the windshield. Thankfully, didn't come through, but it was no fun trying to get stopped while not being able to see. On a bridge. At night. With no headlights....

Second time was much slower, about 45 mph, in my next Accord. The deer stuck her head right into the road where my passenger headlight was pointed. i never saw her since oncoming traffic had their high beams on. Struck her in the head, spun her around and into my passenger door. Needed a new hood, bumper, headlight, fender and door.

As mentioned, just about the worst thing people do is swerve hard to avoid the deer and lose it, end up rolling or crashing into oncoming traffic. It's a lose lose situation. On one hand, you hit 200 lbs of muscle and bone, totaling your car, or try to avoid and risk having an accident. Which you chose depends largely upon the situation.

Hitting a deer at 30 is still going to cause a lot of damage. Throw a 100 pound punching bag in the road and your car will not like the result. It's imperative that you keep the car under control, on the road, and in your lane, especially at higher speeds. Most of the fatalities and injuries don't come from the deer coming through the windshield, but the driver having a crash trying to avoid the deer. Swerving upsets stability, striking the deer upsets it even more. As a general rule if a collision is clearly going to happen, hold on tight, steer straight, and stand on the brakes.

 

[glenwolde]

The worst are the airborne deer hitting other cars. A coworker's wife was behind a car that hit a deer, it went airborne. The deer's neck hit the roof where it meets the windshield. This decapitated the deer, and the severed deer head busted through the windsheild and landed in the front passenger seat. She drove off the road and came to a stop in a corn field, jumped out and ran screaming into the woods. They had to go looking for her. The car was totaled, mostly due to the blood in the interior.

 

[LVSteve]

The worst are the airborne deer hitting other cars. A coworker's wife was behind a car that hit a deer, it went airborne. The deer's neck hit the roof where it meets the windshield. This decapitated the deer, and the severed deer head busted through the windsheild and landed in the front passenger seat. She drove off the road and came to a stop in a corn field, jumped out and ran screaming into the woods. They had to go looking for her. The car was totaled, mostly due to the blood in the interior.

Some days Murphy is a seriously sick puppy.

 

[Faulkner]

Deer strikes are very common here in the Ozarks, I've worked dozens of accidents involving them. I've actually hit three myself in the past 10 years. The most recent one was more of the deer hitting me than me hitting it, I was doing about 30 mph and it came running out on the left side and hit me square in the drivers side door. I never saw it coming and it scared the **** out of me when it hit, then when it flew up and over on the windshield my initial thought was that I'd hit a pedestrian.

I've worked several fatality accidents due to deer strikes in which the driver looses control afterwards. Deer strikes on motorcycles are the worst, they almost never turn out well.

 

[carpriver]

where I live the deer are a way of life. Over the last 20 years I have hit 10 or more deer. One time a deer hit me at an angle and I lost control and did a 180 and ended up in a field. the right side front corner was pushed back on the tire the fender pushed on the door. The biggest deer hit was a nice 10 point buck ,came out of a ditch, just after dark, Hit it broadside I was going about 70 mph. the entire front end was crushed, radiator, water pump, the deer exploded, blood and guts covered the truck ,a 1994 Ford Ranger. Do not swerve to miss a deer, it's just a car/truck.

 

[chud333]

I hit one in Nebraska on the 4th of July weekend
coming back home from a Prairie Dog shooting trip.
I was doing all of 65 mph plus some.
The Deer came out of a side ditch that was over grown
and i didn't see her until it was smack dab in front of
me. She was moving..... I'll always remember the image
of that Deer. Think of a Horse at full gallop.
I was driving my Ford F150 and never had a chance to
hardly get my foot to the brake pedal. I am sure i hadn't
put pressure on it when the collision happened.
It slowed the truck down a little and as i looked in my
sideview mirror i saw it sliding on it's side into the
ditch opposite side of the road from which it came.
I centered the Deer right in the middle of the bumper.
I was traveling with a buddy and called him on the walkie
talkie as he was up ahead of me. I had his 12 year old son
in the front seat riding with me at the time and as others
have said, i never even thought of swerving or going to
the ditch at that speed. My buddy came back as i was
parked and afraid to even get out of the truck to survey
the damage. (Again this was 4th of July weekend and i am
800 miles from home).
Then my buddy looked the truck over after checking on us
he motioned to me it was OK to let go of the steering
wheel and come around front.Only damage was the bumper
on drivers side was curled around back towards the tire.
He had me get in the truck and turn the wheel as far as it
would go towards the bent in bumper and i had a good 3-4
inches of clearance.
I couldn't believe it but i was good to go.
And because the Deer was at full stride when i hit it
she never got into the grill or the airbag sensors.
I was a lucky man that day.
Turned out to be 750 dollars worth of damage on a Deer
i hit doing 65 mph plus head on.


Chuck

 

[David LaPell]

I hit one back in 2003 with my '97 Dodge Dakota at 70 mph. I saw her jump the guard rail and cross the highway and I had time to start to hit the brakes but I hit her broadside and she got most of the left side of the front of the truck. She rolled down the driver side with her feet and head bouncing off the door which she dented up pretty good. I know when the cop arrived he thought she had been hit by a tractor trailer, she was pretty much useless as any type of meat from that point on. It did about $5000 in damage and the truck never was right after they fixed it.
My guess is the guy swerved trying to avoid the deer. More people are killed that way than anything else. You're better off taking the deer especially if you are driving at a higher speed and in something bigger than a car like a pick up or SUV. I had a deer hit me a couple years ago in my Jeep and other than a marker lens and him cracking the headlight bezel it was no worse for wear. That little buck was good eating!
I remember watching one woman almost lose it and go into a ditch because she didn't want to hit a squirrel, she said she didn't want to kill it. So she could have gotten killed over a tree rat. It's hard to tell yourself to do it but unless its a moose, it's best to take the animal on, where I live moose are rare and bears don't get more than 300-400 pounds on average.

 

[WuzzFuzz]

Not to take away from deer hits, but around here besides the deer, it skunks..I've seen and smelled several of the road kills. This time of the year, it seems like they act about like a snake. They want to come out of the fields and take the easy walking on the roads.

Too, back to deer..There's a lot of cattle trucks, coming and going. Most of those truckers are always going 100 mph in a 50 mph zone, but most everyone of the big cattle trucks has those big guards on the front of their trucks.

All of this brings me to, this time of the year, I really don't like to drive at night or dusk/dawn times because of the deer.

WuzzFuzz

 

[SC_Mike]

Only deer I ever hit was with my trophy winning 1968 Elcamino SS, right in the middle of the day. It couldn't have been with my beat up Suburban, nooooo, had to be the classic.

My son got his first deer with his Toyota.

 

[bushmaster1313]

The do not swerve advice is well taken.

 

[Gaffer]

Several years ago I did research on MV/deer collisions and learned that back then the average insurance claim was over $2,500/collision. The total cost nation wide was in the millions.
The wife hit one and the insurance was just short of $2,000 and the deer got up and ran away. Have no clue if it survived or not.
My research was to help prove that we still needed deer hunting in a town considering banning it. The result was that with 2-3 MV/deer collisions per week the deer herd still needed culling and hunting was not banned. The tree huggers are still upset that Bambi can be hunted. IMHO a quick clean hunting kill sure outweighs MV collisions with a lot less risk to the people involved.

 

[03hemi]

My wife hit one doing about 40-45, it totally wiped out my rare factory installed supercharged 97 4Runner that looked like it was brand new, well until she hit the deer. They will phuck you up. Still miss that old girl.

 

[lonejacklarry]

In 2008, a creative thinker in Missouri government decided that the state ought to pony up $250 to "alleviate the financial suffering" of residents that had struck a deer on MO highways.

Missouri has about 9,000 reported deer/vehicle collisions a year so the cost would have been astronomical.

I guess the rest of the legislators sobered up the moron that wrote the bill and it never went anywhere.

 

[Salty RI]

We have a lot of deer in this area and I never hit one, came close a few times but my wife has had three hit her, one ran into the front fender only putting a small dent another one ran into the rear door again only a small dent the third one, my wife was driving down a narrow road that had a high bank on both side's a deer jumped over the bank and landed on her hood, she had kid in the back seat that she used to cart around and the kid was laughing, my wife asked her what was so funny, she said Gina you said the F word.

 

[The Big D]

Bambi strikes!

Centerpunched a big buck Christmas Eve eve three years ago $4500.00 in damage to my 2011 Range Rover.

Deer had far less...wandered off into the woods...never found.

Was traveling 25 MPH at thh time. They are tough buggers...all muscle and bone.

BTW, heed the advice of others herein: HIT THE DANGED DEER INSTEAD OF A TREE.

Be safe.