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for fourteen seasons i worked and lived in deer country, and never hit any larger animals, including moose, elk, bison, deer, etc. the key is to pay real attention to what is going on around you. the closest call i had was one night driving to grand teton national park, a moose came across the road suddenly, but because i was aware i didnt hit it.
a second close call was again when i was driving at night, a deer literally jumped over the hood of my car. fortunately i was doing less than the speed limit of 35 at the time.
you cant just pay attention to the road itself, but also to the area on each side of the road.
The only time I ever hit a deer, was when I was on a bicycle. The deer was mortally wounded and I got only one small scratch on my leg. And we have plenty of deer around here, in town and out and I've driven many miles in places where they cross.
Looking out my back window right now I see 6 does standing in my yard. So, yes, lots of deer here. In 17 years at this house, plus 30+ at my place in Alaska, I've never hit a single animal bigger than a squirrel. You just need to pay attention. The only people I know who hit an animal were not paying attention or the view was blocked by trees/terrain.
IMO Bad Peripheral vision is a major factor. Sometimes there are just too many deer.
i have`nt hit one with any vehicles yet but i did nearly hit one while i was jogging .. a little fawn decided to run along with me for a bit .. i had a picture of it but cant find it at the moment .. i used to carry a camera everywhere i went ..
FWIW, my uncle worked at an ammunition plant near Burlington, Iowa, there were buildings at different locations on the property. This is a very, very large property with plenty of wooded areas. It also has a 9 or 10 ft. high chain link fence all the way around it. Driving from one area to another would result in deer collisions quite frequently. They tried the deer whistles, with no luck in reducing the frequency of deer collisions. During rutting season, he said it wasn't unusual to have 2 or 3, sometimes even more deer hit a week on the property. I've seen plenty of deer smashed vehicles over the years myself, I worked in a body shop for almost 10 yrs. Plenty of cars came in with deer whistles on them that had unfortunately hit a deer.
I've hit one in my 38 years of driving, that was 36 yrs. ago. My wife has had two collisions, one she hit with the front of the car, and the other ran into the side if her car.
I definitely do not envy the people who have to avoid moose, or elk on the highway, those things are huge compared to a paltry little deer.
3 is a mistake in this circumstance. Deer do not pop out further out, they pop out immediately in front of you. If you are focusing further out, you well definitely not see them. In the rare occasions where they approach the road further out, you have time to stop. It is immediately beside you that you need to watch for deer, not further out There is no movement to see until the clear the trees. Often they come charging right at the side of your car and the avoidance solution is speed up, not brake. Soeeding only makes a difference of how much damage they do to your car. At 35 you are going to hit them and kill them. At 65 you are going to hit them and kill them, but there is more possibility parts of them might come through your windscreen or firewall. The big danger is swerving. While there is bigger danger swerving at higher speeds, swerving is simply a bad idea at an speed and likely to get you killed at any speed.
I have to wonder how many deer have ran across the road just far enough in front of you that you didn't see them, cause you're looking 10 ft. in front of you, and were lucky enough to not have even come close to them. I tend to look as far as my lights shine, constantly scanning both ditches from the front of my car to as far as I can see. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen deer's eyes glowing along the road's edge at the end of my headlights reach. I have avoided many a collision by looking as far ahead as I can see with my lights, and slowing down when spotting the eyes glowing ahead of me.
Deer tend to "pop out" wherever they damn well please, not just at the nose of your car. It also helps if you are familiar with the roads you frequently travel, most likely if you pay attention, you will know where the deer tend to be at most often. That's not a guarantee you won't see them elsewhere, but at least if you know where you see them most often you can slow down and be more attentive than usual.
Fortunately natural selection and evolution in time should result in less deer accidents as the surviving deer learn via genetic memory to avoid traffic. That and the advent of self driving cars should be able to detect deer better than human can.
I'm surprised how fast people drive at night.. bumper to bumper going 80mph. I don't like driving at night if I can avoid it. My solution was to move closer to work. Problem solved.
Most deer collisions happen during October through November during their mating and hunting season, and most of the time during these events it at dusk to early dawn.
I have to wonder how many deer have ran across the road just far enough in front of you that you didn't see them, cause you're looking 10 ft. in front of you, and were lucky enough to not have even come close to them. I tend to look as far as my lights shine, constantly scanning both ditches from the front of my car to as far as I can see. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen deer's eyes glowing along the road's edge at the end of my headlights reach. I have avoided many a collision by looking as far ahead as I can see with my lights, and slowing down when spotting the eyes glowing ahead of me.
Deer tend to "pop out" wherever they damn well please, not just at the nose of your car. It also helps if you are familiar with the roads you frequently travel, most likely if you pay attention, you will know where the deer tend to be at most often. That's not a guarantee you won't see them elsewhere, but at least if you know where you see them most often you can slow down and be more attentive than usual.
I have learned not for focus out too far ahead when I am in deer areas. So that has not happened in several year. It only took three or four close encounters for me to learn to watch the woods immediately on either side of me rather than way ahead. Of course I look ahead as well, but I focus as much as possible at the woods to either side. If one deer crosses, there are always more, so I often stop and wait for them to show up.
As to how often a deer jumps out immediately in front of me instead of substantially in front of me, probably about 75-80% of the time. Twice this weekend. A third time, they were considerably in front of me when I turned out of our driveway. a young deer wandered into the street and was just walking around. Since it was obvious, I stopped way back and eventually two older deer showed up and chased him or her back into the woods.
All the close calls I have had were when deer jumped out right at the corner of my periphery vision. Probably about 30 times. I have had some really close calls, but never hit one(other than a tap that did not even knock her down). My wife got hit by a deer that jumped out and ran into the side of the truck she was driving. $4500 damage. The deer ran off, so e did not even get to eat it. (I have heard they are no good to eat when they get hit anyway).
Where we live, we have near collisions with deer nearly every week unless they recently depopulated them. We have to honk them out of our driveway at times as well. Sometimes they just stand there and stare at you. Some time ago, a large buck was in the middle of main street in town late at night in dense fog. We stopped and he just stood and stared. We honked and inched forward and he lowered his horns and sort of lunged at us a little bit. So we sat and waited - a stand off. After a while, two does and three fawns came out of the fog and meandered down the street. They walked right alongside out van close enough to lean out and pet them if we wanted (they obviously would not have allowed that, but they had no fear of us at all). He eventually followed them. That is the only time I have seen one be aggressive toward our car, although I have seen them act that way with our dog(s). Sometimes the younger ones try tog et out dogs to play with them. (We have big dogs).
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