PSA::::::::::Wear your seatbelt
 

Pubilc Service Announcement:::::::::::::::Wear your seatbelt. This lady did and I drove her home (After ambulance checked her out) with a scratch on her arm. 55mph. Swerved to miss a deer. Rolled her Honda Pilot in a flooded ditch.

Hit the deer it's cheaper in lots of ways!

thats what I told her to do...

Yikes, someone needs defensive driving lessons.

Glad she's ok.

but was the deer tramatized by the whole thing? JK

glad she wasn't hurt

Arm chair QB time - who are the 2 goobers on the overturned car with no bunker gear?

irate husband in striped shirt and fire chief in black jacket.

I said what I thought of the scene to the DC (District Chief)

A colleague and I do some consulting on auto accidents. Wearing the seatbelt is huge.

But a lot of rollover injuries occur to people wearing seat belts, so avoiding rollovers is also very important. I'm training my children to use the brake and slow as much as you can but to maintain the lane and hit the deer. Only a pedestrian is worth risking a rollover with a quick attempt to avoid the collision.

We rehearse it together when driving lonely roads at night both when I'm driving and when they have their learner's permits. Scan roadsides left and right looking for deer. Begin braking if a roadside deer is spotted. Brake hard if deer enters the road. Do not swerve to avoid. Remain in your lane and hit the deer.

The basic theory got tested down in Cameron when a rabbit jumped out. Brake. Thump, thump.

The lady worked at a vet clinic. She didnt want to hit the deer. I said.. "So you risked your life for free meat". She is second thinking her decision about it now... lol

EDIT:::Forgot to mention while asking her medic questions, she starts freaking out about her baby. Her "baby" is a 220 lb bull mastiff with just a scratch on his lip. The both walked away.

Free dinner

The only thing everyone is leaving out in not swerving is consider the height of the vehicle you are in. Low car big deer maybe better to swerve. The reason being that a tall deer hit by a low car can go through the windshield. A co-worker of mine was killed a few years when she & her husband hit a deer. The deer's legs went through the windshield and she was killed next to her husband. Truck or SUV definitely hit the deer.

Even if you take the swerve route you still need your seatbelt. It's really hard to steer if you can't stay behind the wheel.

I disagree. Only 1 in 1000 car deer collisions is fatal for a person in the car. Of these infrequent fatalities, the vast majority occur when the vehicle flips or the car leaves the roadway and collides with something like a tree or utility pole. Keeping the car in the roadway and avoiding flipping gives the best chance of survival even in smaller cars.

But reducing velocity is also important. A 35 mph impact with a deer has much less chance of great bodily harm than a 55 mph impact. I practice constant scanning of the roadside ahead and begin moderately braking as soon as deer are spotted on the side of the road. Waiting until deer are in the road to brake is waaaaay too late. During times of peak deer activity I also frequently ask passengers in my car to help me scan the roadside for deer, and I'll drive slightly below the speed limit in conditions of limited visibility when deer are likely to be moving.

I bet I anger more than a few impatient drivers on foggy mornings. I drove 35 mph all the way from Hackberry to the Cameron boat launch the morning last December when someone put the mobile home in the ditch along Hwy 27.

Where was it at 394?

MG you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I totally agree with you but there are other varibles to consider. Best course is to wear your seatbelt and slow down.

Look at the size of the nuts on that Moose!

Nice knuckles too!

3226 (DeRidder Bypass)

Forgive me. I thought you were suggesting that swerving was a choice to consider for smaller cars and bigger deer. It might be worth considering for really big animals like elk and moose, but even for smaller cars, swerving increases your chance of serious injury for whitetail deer. Here's the advice offered consistently by the insurance industry:

The following facts can be helpful in avoiding deer-related collisions:

Deer are not just found on rural roads near wooded areas, many deer crashes occur on busy highways near cities.

Deer are unpredictable, especially when faced with glaring headlights, blowing horns and fast-moving vehicles. They often dart into traffic.

Deer often move in groups. If you see one, there are likely more in the vicinity.

When driving, the I.I.I. recommends taking the following precautions:

Drive with caution when moving through deer-crossing zones, in areas known to have a large deer population and in areas where roads divide agricultural fields from forestland.

Always wear your seat belt and stay awake, alert and sober.

When driving at night, use high beam headlights when there is no oncoming traffic. The high beams will better illuminate the eyes of deer on or near the roadway.

Be especially attentive from sunset to midnight and during the hours shortly before and after sunrise. These are the highest risk times for deer-vehicle collisions.

Brake firmly when you notice a deer in or near your path, but stay in your lane. Many serious crashes occur when drivers swerve to avoid a deer and hit another vehicle or lose control of their cars.

Do not rely on devices such as deer whistles, deer fences and reflectors to deter deer. These devices have not proven effective.


The insurance industry usually gives very good advice, because they have an army of math geeks (actuaries) who study the outcome probabilties for different actions. In addition to their recommendations, colleagues and I are experts in injury mechanisms, and while most of our publications are in blast and ballistics, we actually earn most of our money doing auto accident analysis to determine injury causes. Even for smaller cars, the best plan is to maintain your lane, slow as much as possible and hit the deer if it is still in your lane. There are no guarantees of a positive outcome, but probability is strongly on your side with this course of action compared with swerving to miss the deer.