CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

It's all the Deer's fault!

(15 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from Cyclingmollie

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    From a Yahoo News story about a 'test driver' (not sure if he works for the car company or was a motoring journalist) almost hitting a deer and it being captured on film. Can't view the video here...

    "According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics, deer are responsible for or involved in around 1 million collisions with automobiles each year, killing 200 Americans, causing more than 10,000 injuries and $1 billion in vehicle damage."

    I love the 'responsible for'. I know it's probably the most apt word to use, but it brings to mind the deer deliberately jumping out in front of cars!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Min
    Member

    Well they don't pay road tax.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. SRD
    Moderator

    " but it brings to mind the deer deliberately jumping out in front of cars"

    They do, basically. quite terrifying.

    At least most 'deer' on mainland US are fairly small. Moose on the other hand are big and stupid, and slide up over car bonnets and through windscreen, causing havoc.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Oh no, I know they do, has happened to me before and I've never stamped on the brakes quite so effectively, but I meant as in 'cold, calculating, deliberately trying to get run over and/or kill Americans'...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I once hit and killed a deer with a car. In the time it took me to stop, check the deer, go back and check the car for damage (£400 as it turned out) another driver had stopped, shoved the deer into his boot and driven off. Now try explaining that to your parents.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. splitshift
    Member

    quite small ! I hit a large monarch of the glen type chappie crossing the drumochter summit in the lorry, wrecked the front, punctured the radiator and the floor ! Antlers actually poking through the dash board !Had no helmet on, what do we expect !It was a mess, very sad, i like deer, but they are kind off suicidal ! Very little application of brakes, one deer, or three cars as the lorry jack knifes across all lanes ?Its the grouse who should sit a flyingability course ! they fly right at the windscreen !And another thing ! why should sheep be out withouit hi vis ? Surely they must be cooncil employees, keeping the grass verges in shape !
    I am convinced its a major contribution to road safety !

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. Bhachgen
    Member

    I'm sure I read somewhere that they fit the camels with high-viz in the middle east countries, as they are inclined to wander onto the roads and have a similar effect to the mooses (meese?) described above by SRD if hit by a car.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. SRD
    Moderator

    Camels are a lot smarter than moose. But also stubborn.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Arellcat
    Moderator

    So nothing about the most sensible option of drivers taking their big feet off the gas?

    I remember many years ago being in a car in the country when a pheasant darted out of the verge and stopped in the road. Despite the driver swerving there was a spectacular thunk and an awkward lump of feathers flapping in the breeze as I looked back up the road. I was only 8 or 9, and I felt very bad about it for years after. Driving home from Coldstream during an autumn not that long ago I was quite saddened by the amount of roadkill I saw.

    Mythbusters did an episode about how best to react when suddenly faced with a moose standing in the road. Do you hit the brakes and dip the front of the car as much as possible? Do you accelerate? They found that whatever you do, if you hit the animal you're both going to have a very bad day.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. slowcoach
    Member

    I too had heard of hi-viz for camels. But it took too long for me to find a link to the Council that uses sheep for traffic-calming Culembourg in Netherlands"Elsewhere in Culemborg, Joost has introduced sheep to graze strips of public land, ensuring that the animals have to cross the road and concentrate the minds of drivers. The sheep look contented with their role as traffic calmers!" Or there are the Swiss imitation sheep that are reflective. But in England the fake sheep have been put behind bars

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. splitshift
    Member

    feet of gas pedal.........yes best option but when the offending deer leaps across your bow at 40 mph, from 3 feet ahead,in the dark,and snow then theres not a lot of help available. Reminds me of a time i saw a squirel struck by a car in front of mine,it was clearly not dead but in a very bad way !I actually had to stop and let my then girlfriend drive,much to her annoyance !Road kill, yes there is a lot, seems to be a lot of badgers, last year. Always difficult to know what to do, while travelling at reasonable speed, when some suicidal animal looms into your field of vision , reactions have to be VERY quickly weghed up,automatically I want to swerve , but clearly thats not always an option. Theres a probably mythical story about loads of truckers slowing down and driving around a collum of ducklings following a mother across a M way in england shire, only for the police car sent to investigate, to run right across them !(hopefully by accident ! )I reckon thats enough orrible stories for now !

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Roibeard
    Member

    In Australia, civil servants are not allowed to drive after dusk - if they get delayed, they must book into an hotel and spend the night.

    Most folk consider it crazy to drive after dark, due to the risk presented by kangaroos that similarly can put a damper on the day...

    I did meet someone that got taken out by a sheep on one of the Western Isles. In most cars it would have been miserable for the sheep, but the car might have been drivable - however he was in a Discovery and the sheep went underneath, taking out the steering rod(s), so the Disco ended up in a field, via a stone wall.

    Robert

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. Min
    Member

    "I did meet someone that got taken out by a sheep"

    "She instigated the whole thing yer Honour"

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "I remember many years ago being in a car in the country when a pheasant darted out of the verge and stopped in the road. Despite the driver swerving there was a spectacular thunk and an awkward lump of feathers flapping in the breeze as I looked back up the road"

    I've only ever hit one thing in the road with the car, and it was a pheasant. Ran straight out of a hedge, poor thing didn't stand a chance. For the record I was doing 50 in a 60, on a downhill straight bit of road in perfect visibility with the sun behind me - not recklessly horsing about.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I was returning from helping at a community musical performance in Kirkcaldy. I wasn't speeding either. I've had a clean driving licence for 25 years and only one collision* (which wasn't my fault).

    *Okay, two if you count the deer.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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