Deer Danger

On Tue, 24 May 2005 06:51:41 -0400, Ken wrote:

I have never seen or heard of anyone hitting a deer on a bicycle!
But the bike woould probably get the worst of it.

I haven't hit one, but I had a very close call. A deer came zooming
across the road between me and another rider. It came through heavy brush
so there was no way to see it in advance, and it was just chance that it
didn't come through a fraction of a second earlier, or later, and collide
with one of us.

I make it a point to watch for deer, and call them out to other riders.
If you see one, there are others nearby, too.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | What is objectionable, and what is dangerous about extremists is
_`\(,_ | not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant.
(_)/ (_) | --Robert F. Kennedy

RonSonic wrote in
:

On Mon, 23 May 2005 22:18:40 -0700, "greggery peccary" .@.
wrote:



"Garrison Hilliard" wrote in message
...
This is a peak time of year for deer crashes, even in heavily
populated areas.


i almost crushed a squirrel yesterday, but hitting a deer on a
bike would be something...anyone ever?...naw!

It happens. A buddy nearly got creamed on his MTB going up some
wooded single track. Seems someone up ahead had spooked this deer
who went barrelling down the trail right into Wayne. He saw the
antlers coming at him and ditched. If he were riding faster, he'd
have eaten it.

Nothing like fresh venison

I'd rather hit a deer on my bike than with a car.
They're furry and squishy if you actually have to impact them with your
body. (up to a certain speed of course)

With a car doing twice or three times the speed of a bike, they tend to come
right through the windshield and kill you.
(a friend of mine lost his parents when a cloven-ungulate came through the
windshield of their truck... stinkin' shame)

C.

"Garrison Hilliard" wrote in message
...
This is a peak time of year for deer crashes, even in heavily populated
areas.


It's happened to almost every driver: a deer jumps right in front of your
car!


Put yourself in this driver's seat.

You don't realize it, but you're about to hit a deer.


Some video captured by special car cameras, demonstrate just how little
time you have to react.


Sean Kelly hit a deer last Monday night, while driving his brand new car
on U.S. 27 in Cold Spring.


"It took me by surprise totally. I didn't see it out of the corner of my
eyes or anything," Kelly said.

But, it could have been much worse.


"I always saw the deer warning signs, but never took it as a serious
hazard," said Kathy Hill, whose husband Greg was killed as their family
drove home from a soccer tournament in Topeka, Kansas.



A Jeep on the other side of the interstate hit a deer, catapulting it over
the median and through their windshield.


"We were heading 70-miles an hour. So, the speed of the deer, when it hit
our van, I can't estimate what it was, but it made the deer like a
missile," Hill said.


Kathy was hurt. A witness told her about her husband's final moments.


"He was turning his head to the side to see if everybody else was
okay. And that's when he died," said Hill.


Wildlife officers say deer accidents are on the rise.


"There are more deer now in North America than there have ever been. And
we're right in their habitat. We're living there, we're driving
there," said wildlife officer Todd Malmsbury.

Be alert for deer, especially between dusk and dawn.

If you spot a deer, slow down. Others are probably nearby.

And, experts say, if the deer is directly in your path, don't swerve.

On a driving simulator, you can see that swerving to avoid a deer might be
a fatal mistake.

Swerving might take you into the path of an oncoming car, or cause a
rollover.

Instead, hit your brakes.


"A lot of times it's better to hit the deer than it is to actually try to
avoid the deer," said Lt. John Eichkorn of the highway patrol


One solution is the "highway underpass."

New research shows that deer will actually cross under a busy highway,
when given the option.

But, wildlife underpasses can cost as much as a million dollars each.

Deer crashes happen year 'round.

But right now is prime time: the birthing season.

Also be careful in October and November, the mating season.





Contact Carol Williams
E-mail

nice video at website

http://www.wcpo.com/wcpo/localshows/...g/1a85ac0.html

"Maggie" wrote: (clip) I can't even imagine how we could not avoid a deer on
a bicycle. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Call the police! Oh, that's right, you ARE the police.

"David L. Johnson" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 24 May 2005 06:51:41 -0400, Ken wrote:

I have never seen or heard of anyone hitting a deer on a bicycle!
But the bike woould probably get the worst of it.

I haven't hit one, but I had a very close call. A deer came zooming
across the road between me and another rider. It came through heavy brush
so there was no way to see it in advance, and it was just chance that it
didn't come through a fraction of a second earlier, or later, and collide
with one of us.

I make it a point to watch for deer, and call them out to other riders.
If you see one, there are others nearby, too.

--

David L. Johnson


2 Deer stories (from about 20 I could tell you. I live in a very rural area
and they're a constant danger).

I live in the Upstate area of South Carolina. There's a story going around
about a rider out of Greenville, SC who was descending the Saluda Grade (a
favorite climb north of Greenville) when a deer jumped out of the woods.
They crashed. The deer was a buck with a nice rack and the bike frame
became entangled in the deer's antlers. The deer bounded off into the woods
with the bike still entangled and left the rider stranded on the
mountainside. Neither the bike nor the deer were seen again. I'm not
sayin' it's a true story. It's just goin' around.

Second story. Tonight on the way home from a club ride in a town about 45
minutes north of me I was coming down a country highway doing about 65.
There was a vehicle oncoming and, as we were about to meet, a deer bounded
into the road from my side. I slammed on the brakes and missed it. The
oncoming car creamed it just as the deer/car combo was even with my driver
side door. I could hear the impact and, in my rear view mirror, I could see
the car go all over the road trying to maintain control. Had it happened 2
seconds earlier, that car might have hit me head on. Of course, I drive a
huge honkin Ford F150 4x4 farm truck ... so it would have gone better for me
than for them in all probability. Anyway, they were fine, but their car was
a mess. It didn't go so well for the deer, either.

--
Bob C.

"Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts."
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)

wrote in message
...
I live in the country and see deer all the time. I have had
thousands
of them run in front of my car. I have never hit one in my
30+ years
of driving. You must ALWAYS be watching for them, and drive
accordingly. That means drive slow if there are deer in
sight. Why
this is crossposted to a bicycles group I will never know...

Deer are curious things to a cyclist. The deer in the forest
preserves near me are so tame that they often don't move off
the bike path shoulder at all -- or suddenly start up if they
haven't noticed you coming. A couple of years ago, one got
startled, raced me in parallel for about 20-30 yards, and then
jumped completely over the path just in front of me.

There are a lot of deer in there, as well. I only go about 4.5
miles through the local forest preserves on my commute to
work, but usually will see 3-8 deer, although there may be a
few duplicates.

"Ken" wrote in message

Well I think the deer would have enough time to get out of
the way, unless
the cyclist was heading downhill, or had a real good
tailwind pushing them.

This assumes deer follow a rational model

Anything that suddenly leaps in front of you can be hit, no
matter how mobile the animal itself is. Squirrels are a fine
example of this.

"Garrison Hilliard" wrote in message
...
This is a peak time of year for deer crashes, even in heavily populated
areas.


It's happened to almost every driver: a deer jumps right in front of your
car!


Put yourself in this driver's seat.

You don't realize it, but you're about to hit a deer.

Been there, done that...

Befo
http://cadunkle.kicks-ass.net/pics/Galaxie/68/Gal.JPG

After:
http://cadunkle.kicks-ass.net/pics/G...h/P7210004.JPG

Hit a pretty good sized buck doing 55+ MPH. Have the damage to show for it.
Hoping to find a new rad support and grille that greedy junkyard owners
don't want an arm and a leg for. I went to a yard called "Friendship
Junkyard" a couple weeks ago and they wanted $70 for half of a '68 Galaxie
grille that looked like hell. I've seen far nicer grilles on eBay for under
$20. Bah, if I don't find anything this weekend I'll probably find something
at Carlisle the following weekend.

Oh, I'm glad I was driving the Galaxie when this happened. If I had been
driving either of my beaters I was trying to sell at the time (Prelude and
Calais), well, things coulda been much worse off for me, especially in the
Prelude. I've always said half the reason I drive these big old cars with
frames is for safety, and it's proven worthwhile twice. Once getting struck
in the side in my '67, saved my girlfriend from getting hurt, and then of
course with the deer and the '68.

At least I had the car running the next day after replacing the fan and
radiator. Had to get a new water pump later on as the bearings were damaged
from the impact. No big deal, though the radiator was kind of expensive.

Cory

One more reason we need to lower speed limits. Same lives of humans
and deer.

Mike Kruger wrote:

wrote in message
...
I live in the country and see deer all the time. I have had
thousands
of them run in front of my car. I have never hit one in my
30+ years
of driving. You must ALWAYS be watching for them, and drive
accordingly. That means drive slow if there are deer in
sight. Why
this is crossposted to a bicycles group I will never know...

Deer are curious things to a cyclist. The deer in the forest
preserves near me are so tame that they often don't move off
the bike path shoulder at all -- or suddenly start up if they
haven't noticed you coming. A couple of years ago, one got
startled, raced me in parallel for about 20-30 yards, and then
jumped completely over the path just in front of me.

There are a lot of deer in there, as well. I only go about 4.5
miles through the local forest preserves on my commute to
work, but usually will see 3-8 deer, although there may be a
few duplicates.

That rings true with me. The deer see me before I see them and sometimes I
just stop and we look at each other.
Bill Baka