In Many Areas, It's Deer Season.

[MineralMan]

Not deer hunting season, although it is that, too. It's the season that deer are on the move, looking for opportunities to reproduce. The rut is on. Just Saturday, while driving a few blocks to the bank to deposit a check from a client (thanks, client), I passed an accident where a car had hit a deer. This was on a major road in the city of St. Paul, MN. The deer, a huge 8-point buck was dead and in someone's driveway. The car, which would have been going about 40 MPH appeared to be totaled. Looked like the people in the car were OK, but there were a couple of cop cars there and people who lived in the nearby house were standing by the buck.

Someone will come to pick up the deer and will process it for the venison. We have a system in Minnesota to do that, to the benefit of people who need the meat, but can't afford it. The driver's insurance policy will pick up the tab for the damage, since it was a very late-model car which no doubt was insured. But the deer is dead and the car is wrecked. The car owner's insurance premium will go up after this accident.

So, if you're driving around, remember that deer are on the move and may dart out in front of your car, just about anywhere. Turn off your cell phone and pay attention to the road in front of you and to the surrounding areas. Hitting a deer will flat ruin your day, cause your car insurance premium to skyrocket and delay your travel to wherever you were going. In many areas, there are plentiful deer in city and suburban neighborhoods, not to mention in rural areas.

Give the deer a chance to mate and avoid a costly and dangerous accident.

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. And GOTV!

Get Out the Venison!

[MineralMan]

3. LOL! Heckuva expensive way to do that.

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. Sorry, just riffing on your GOTV activism. No offense meant. nt

[MineralMan]

6. I know. Thanks for the reply.

[yeoman6987]

33. I can't believe the insurance companies

Haven't sued the states over deer destruction of cars. Many states have not done enough to control the huge deer population. Some have even shortened deer hunting which is terrible.

[B2G]

2. Good post

I warn my kids driving home from school about this very thing every year. I hope they actually listen.

[MineralMan]

4. There are literally thousands of car vs. deer accidents in MN every year.

A good portion could be avoided.

[Jenoch]

8. Another good piece of advice is to NEVER

swerve your vehicle to avaoid hitting a deer. The car you saw was totaled, but if the driver swerved to avoid hitting the deer, they could have hit another car or a tree which would have been much worse.

[hedgehog]

7. Important to remember - if you see one deer cross the road in front of you - SLOW DOWN!

there are from 2 to 6 more deer waiting to run after the first.

[uppityperson]

10. Indeed, it is not the one you see that is the problem but the others who will panic and run

right when you are where they are.

[MineralMan]

11. Yup. I stopped for a doe the other day, and two yearlings

followed her across the road shortly thereafter.

[FSogol]

26. True and if you see a deer running beside your car, slow down, they'll dart in front of you at any

moment.

[Paladin]

38. Exactly right. Deer are very social, herd animals.

If one crosses in front of you, there's a good chance that at least one more is fixing to make a run for it.

[Aerows]

51. Exactly

I stopped once because I saw one, was about to go again, and then here came five of them hopping out into the road. Just wait - they herd and if you only see one, there are a bunch behind that one.

[Electric Monk]

9. Just last night, while I was walking my dog, we saw a doe

and she calmly munched on a hedge while we got within 20 feet or so. It would've been the easiest kill shot ever for a deer hunter. I'm surprised my dog stayed calm.

[MineralMan]

12. We have some deer near where I live that are

just about tame. No hunting pressure and people who aren't aggressive toward them. It's nice.

[moriah]

20. I saw a deer on Main Street in Bentonville, AR, when I lived there.

Another friend had a "pet deer" that would come and eat potato chips.

Another crossed the interstate and totaled my Team Lead's brand-new car.

Now, I love me some venison. I don't think I could shoot Bambi, but my brother-in-law hunts and he always shares the meat with others, what he doesn't eat himself. There's a reason for hunting, though -- to try to reduce the number of deer that are out there to jump in front of cars. With many of their natural predators driven away by civilization, if hunting didn't happen, the streets would be completely unsafe.

[LeftInTX]

30. The other day, I saw 2 bucks head-locked rut sparring. This is in San Antonio.

They were only a few feet from me. This was at a city park.

The park is a safe haven for deer who miraculously have not encroached surrounding neighborhoods.

[bullwinkle428]

13. I drive a divided 4-lane highway around 20 miles each way

every day for work, and see deer semi-regularly during this time of the year, although they might appear at any time. The speed limit is 65 mph, which doesn't give you a lot of time to react.

Probably 10 years ago, I was driving it at night, and a deer suddenly appeared from the center culvert, running toward the highway surface. My life literally flashed before my eyes, and I ended up clipping him with my side view mirror. I heard and felt the thump against the side of my car. When my heart rate had fallen back to a semi-normal range, I circled around to look for his body in the road, so I could at least report it and police could warn other drivers. He was gone! Apparently, he was either uninjured or at least strong enough to run off somewhere, away from the area of the road.

[Politicalboi]

14. Seen a Buck last night

In Coarsegold Ca. He ran right in front of me, but I wasn't speeding, and I caught a glimpse of him before he crossed the road.

[scarystuffyo]

15. I just wish they wouldn't put the Deer Crossing Signs on busy roads

Why tell the deer to cross on busy highways

This needs to be rethought

[Revanchist]

16. You're not the first with that idea

[scarystuffyo]

18. You can hear her crack up just for a second

[MineralMan]

17. Maybe they could put traffic signals there for the deer.

That might work, once we teach them to read.

[scarystuffyo]

19. hehe

[Orrex]

21. It's a shame that cars have become so important for population control.

This would less of a danger if deer still had natural predators in the wild.

[MineralMan]

22. There's a lot less "wild" today than there once was.

We've built our own homes in the same places the deer prefer, too. Predators on deer are large predators. We're deer-sized, ourselves. Wolves and large cats have been eliminated wherever humans live, pretty much.

[Orrex]

24. That's kind of what I meant

An uncontrolled deer population can ravage a wilderness, too. A bad deal all around.

[MineralMan]

25. I know. Thanks.

No good solutions, really.

[sarisataka]

23. .

[UglyGreed]

27. You can also

Last edited Mon Nov 17, 2014, 04:39 PM - Edit history (1)

buy a device for you car to alert the deer that you are coming.

[MineralMan]

28. From what I've read, those don't appear to work.

[UglyGreed]

31. Oh I did not

know that. I have not been in deer country for a while now. BTW I was with my brother in Upstate NY many years ago and while he was driving me back home to Long Island a deer popped out of a ravine next to the road, jumped over the car and we clipped it and it was killed. We notified and local trooper barracks and they pick it up and did not go to waste. We got some strange looks from the other drivers on the way back to Long Island though.

[Alittleliberal]

29. I live in the NE mountains

They are everywhere always. It's crazy. I see them 4 or 5 times a week on my trip to work for 8 months of the year.

[NutmegYankee]

32. Actually, the insurance premium won't go up.

Hitting deer is a no fault accident as deer running in front of a car is considered an act of God. By regulation, the insurance company can't use that against you.

But I hear your warning. I missed a 6 point buck the other day by mere inches while doing 40 MPH. Sure got the ticker going in that one.

[MineralMan]

35. That's good to know.

[RebelOne]

36. Yeah, god made that deer run in front of a car. n/t

[NutmegYankee]

37. It's a legal term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God

[valerief]

46. The deer must not have prayed hard enough.

[GGJohn]

34. They're every where on our property up here around Flagstaff.

We're pretty careful when we have to go into Flagstaff for supplies, deer all over the place.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. I drove from The Grand Canyon back to Chicago two Novembers ago...

.... and deer were smeared all over the highway.

I was a little scary going through Wolf Creek pass at night (probably scarier in daylight lol) seeing wildlife all over the side of the road.

We were passed by an ambulance and, sure enough, there was a small car up ahead with its windshield caved in. Probably a deer.

I80 through Iowa was a massacre. Those big trucks make a mess of deer.

No fun driving at night in November.

Not going back to Flagstaff to take the southern route was a mistake.

[GGJohn]

41. Yeah, I-40 during the winter is probably the best route compared to I-80,

although we do get a fair amount of snow here.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

47. We took the southern route on the way down to Phoenix

From Chicago through Missouri, Oklahoma, Amarillo to Albuquerque to Flagstaff and then south.

That was a beautiful drive. Especially through the White Mountains in Az.

It was mistake to try and mix it up for the ride back. We shoulda headed back south to Flagstaff after the Grand Canyon and gone back the way we came.

Wolf Creek Pass was no fun. There was still snow and ice on the road from the prior week. I said to my partner "at least there is no one else on the road so I can take my time and not feel pressured by someone behind me. On the other hand, there is a reason there is no one else on the road. Doh!"


I didn't know Wolf Creek Pass was a "thing" until I heard "The Ballad of Wolf Creek Pass" on the radio the next day.

[mopinko]

39. driving from northern wis to chicago after election day

i saw a good dozen deer on the roadside.
they can only pick them up and use the meat if the accident is reported in a timely fashion. these, apparently, were not.
wis will also pick up and butcher bear. fellow campaign worker found that out the hard way.

[valerief]

42. I don't use the phone while I drive. Thank goodness, because last year a big-ass deer sprinted

from the woods right out in front of my car--well maybe 40 or 50 feet away. I don't speed either, so he passed as I slowed down.

If I'd been driving like half the nitwits I see on the road, that deer and I would have been toast.

[MineralMan]

43. You're smart, and that probably saved you, the deer and your car.

[Botany]

44. Who is a virgin in Wisconsin?

Spomebody who hasn't hit a deer.

[MineralMan]

45. So it often seems in Minnesota, too.

[Botany]

49. Same in many parts of Ohio too

I live in the city of Columbus and I have seen their hoofprints in my front yard.

I haven't hit one yet but I have come very close on more than one time.

Now my 20 guage has taken a few down.

We have more White Tail Deer now then when the pilgrams landed.

[Aerows]

52. Try rural Mississippi

You can barely walk a mile without tripping over a deer, a turtle and an armadillo.

[Kaleva]

48. Certainly not the Wisconsin guy who was caught having sex with deer roadkill

It wasn't against the law, in Wisconsin, to do that kind of thing when the deed was done so the state passed a law soon after making it illegal.

[Aerows]

50. I have them

just blithely trotting through the yard. Big, small, fawns, does, they do not care. Just mosey on through.