Every year, collisions with deer or antelope are the cause of hundreds of car accidents along the roads of North America and northern Europe. Collisions with these animals, especially moose, are potentially fatal to passengers and are likely to cause serious damage to your car, as well as to the animal. If you want to avoid a collision with a deer or antelope, you need to be alert and know what to do if you come face-to-face with one of them. Here's how to do it.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Avoiding Collisions
Step 1. Pay attention to warning signs
Collisions are more common in the main habitats of deer or antelope such as in forested areas and water. If you see a sign indicating a deer or deer crossing, increase your vigilance and slow down. Deer and antelope cross roads for different reasons and at different times. The mating season and hunting season also cause the animals to move. Stay alert.
Step 2. Drive at a safe speed
Don't go fast when you're driving through deer or antelope territory. You'll still arrive even if you drive slower and you'll have more time to dodge the animals if you run into them. Wildlife experts recommend 90 km/h as a reasonable speed for areas where wildlife is in good weather, as it gives you enough time to react and stop. Here are the disadvantages that you can experience if you go too fast:
- You can't stop fast enough to avoid a crash.
- The impact of a car/truck crash gets bigger as your speed increases.
- Your ability to dodge is drastically reduced and you'll most likely end up swerving to dodge instead of braking and responding cautiously.
Step 3. Drive defensively
Be prepared to take evasive steps that include the ability to slow down, brake suddenly or turn off blinding headlights. Drive in such a way that you can stop within reach of your car's headlight beam. Practice in a safe area if you don't know how quickly this can be done with your vehicle. Make sure your seat belts are fastened and check that all other passengers are wearing them. A sudden forward jolt can cause people to be thrown out of the car.
Step 4. Observe your surroundings
Observe the sides of the road actively for signs of wildlife as you drive. If you have passengers, ask them to help but tell them not to scream as this can be very startling and can cause the driver to react incorrectly. Ask them to calmly tell you when they see any deer or antelope nearby. Pay attention to road edges, ridges, into ditches (deer and antelope love to eat grass there), road medians, crossroads or on the road itself and try to find signs of movement, eye flashes or body shapes.
Pay attention to both sides of the road; there is some evidence that drivers tend to pay more attention to the side of the road next to the passenger seat than the side to the driver itself, making the false assumption that only one side is the problem. Watch both sides of the road
Step 5. Be more careful at sunset and sunrise
Deer and deer seem to be most mobile in the hours around sunset to midnight and around dawn. This period is also the most difficult time for our eyes to adjust to light because usually the light conditions are between really dark or really bright so we also have more difficulty seeing well.
Beware. If you see one deer or deer, chances are there are more deer or other deer nearby, even if you don't see them. If you see one tail, chances are you will meet more
Step 6. Drive the vehicle carefully at night
Use headlights where possible and when there are no cars coming from the opposite direction so you don't startle other drivers. The high beam will illuminate more than one area you are traveling through. The following are a number of precautions to take when driving in the dark:
- Move to the middle lane if you're driving on a three-lane road, or position your car in the center as much as possible if it's a two-lane road.
- Make sure your windshield is clean and doesn't reflect dirt that prevents you from seeing clearly.
- Riding below the speed limit provides a fuel advantage as well as a safety advantage.
- Watch the sides of the streets for the reflections of the animal's eyes that are often seen from a distance at night. Sometimes the eyes are the only part of the animal's body visible until you are right in front of it.
Step 7. Slow down when other cars behave differently
If you see flashing lights (hazard lights or headlights), hear a horn or see someone waving loudly, slow down and be ready to stop! Obviously if a car stops suddenly in front of you, you should also stop or at least slow down. In a situation like this, the other cars might have stopped because an animal had crossed in front of them.
Step 8. Stay alert, even when you approach a village or town
You just got to the outskirts of a city, so everything's safe now, right? Wrong! Deer and deer roam to the outskirts of villages and cities in search of food. These animals could be eating grass in the median of the road or running from someone's yard. Keep driving carefully. When you encounter a deer or deer, don't expect the animal to react rationally.
Loud honking horns, flashing lights and snaking metal engines tend to frighten the animals greatly and will more than likely dart toward you instead of out of your way. Male deer are known to often crash into cars of any size that are stopped or moving
Step 9. Know when you shouldn't swerve
If suddenly there is a deer in front of your car, brake firmly. Don't swerve and leave your lane; many accidents occur not as a result of colliding with a deer but as a result of hitting another car or truck from the opposite lane while trying to avoid the animal. The best thing to do is to drive defensively first and go slow enough so that you don't hit a deer and can brake in time.
Step 10. Blow your horn at the deer or deer in a series of short sounds
Only do this if the deer is far enough ahead and there aren't many cars around you to be bothered by the honking. This can scare the deer away, but there is no guarantee that it will keep the animal off the road. If you are close enough to the deer, you should not honk it, as the animal may become confused and approach you.
Method 2 of 2: What to Do in a Collision
Step 1. Reduce impact if possible
If an accident involving deer or antelope is unavoidable, here are some suggestions to reduce the impact of the accident:
- Try to move in the direction the animal came from. This move can keep you away from it and the animal will likely continue to move forward instead of backing away from where it came from. This step will only work if there are no other animals. This step will not work for the antelope.
- Move your line of sight to that point as well; do not look at the animal or you will drive towards it.
- Try to graze instead of hitting the animal directly. Press the brake firmly, tilt the car/truck and lift your foot off the brake pedal when it hits. Releasing the brake pedal will cause the vehicle to lift slightly and this may be enough to stop the animal from climbing onto the windshield if your vehicle is high enough.
- If you're about to run into a moose, lean against the door pillar. When this event was tested at the Mythbuster show, the center of the car was always completely crushed in each crash, but the triangular sections on the door pillars always remained intact. Even so, there are no guarantees; much better to avoid collisions altogether.
Step 2. Be careful after a collision with a antelope or deer
Here are some important steps to take after evaluating everyone's relative well-being:
- Pull over if possible. Turn on the hazard lights and if you can, aim the headlights at the animal as close as possible.
- Check for injuries to passengers and treat them properly. Even if there were no physical injuries, the feeling of being shaken would occur fairly quickly. Try to calm each other down and if it's cold, put on warmer clothes immediately because shaking or fear will increase your body's inability to block the cold. If it's winter, stay in the car for some warmth.
- Avoid approaching the animal; the creature may kick or attack you out of fear and pain. If the animal is blocking the road, use your hazard lights and headlights and keep your car in place. Only attempt to move the animal if you are 100% sure it is dead.
- Use street beacons or safety triangles if available.
- Call the police immediately or seek help from other motorists. Keep in mind that most insurance companies won't cover the damage suffered from hitting a deer or deer if you don't report it to the police.
Tips
- Beware of waters that cross the road; creeks, swamps and wetlands are attractive places for deer and antelope. Roads are easy passages from these waters for animals to reach, so there is a greater chance that the animals are in the vicinity.
- One deer means there are more deer. Deer travel in groups and if you see one, slow down immediately as there will be many more. Moose are not very flocking, so one moose can mean there is only one deer. But it is still possible that there are more moose in the area. In addition, cows often travel with their calves.
- Use the headlights of another car to help you spot deer or deer. Watch for moving shadows in the light of other cars for signs of deer or deer.
- Increase your vigilance in case of fire. Deer and other animals will move quite a distance from the fire and will cross on roads far from where they normally are. Even if the fire is miles away, be aware of animals leaving the fire area at any time.
- Think in advance about how you would react personally in a situation if there were deer or deer in front of you. This mental preparation will make your reactions better and calmer.
- Sometimes a deer will freeze in the headlights of a car when you approach it even if the animal is not right on the road and then dart into the street suddenly when your vehicle is close to it. In some instances, the deer will end up crashing into the side of the car. This is a difficult behavior to deal with because slowing down can increase the chances of the deer hitting your car.
- Stay at the motel, pull over and rest or stay put and continue your journey later if you feel that driving around deer/deer is too dangerous. It is better to arrive alive though late than to arrive injured or dead just for the sake of punctuality.
- Another option is to quickly speed up the vehicle to pass the animals. It's hard to choose this option quickly enough to be effective because accelerating the vehicle feels very counterintuitive at this stage. However, under the right circumstances, this option can be your best option to avoid a collision.
- The best advice in this regard is probably to keep driving at the speed you were using before without making too fast a change of direction or speed and let the deer's natural instincts save both you and the animal itself. Setting the pace in situations where this event might occur will definitely help.
- Deer very often cross the road in the fall because of the hunting season and breeding season. Be careful.
Warning
- The fence along the road is not a guarantee of safety. Deer or deer can walk around it, pass it or jump over it. Don't rely on the fences; instead drive carefully to keep your mind at ease.
- Do not turn on the lights in the car. These lights create a dazzling reflection of light from the inside of the car's windshield which can reduce visibility and make it harder for outside animals to see.
- Don't honk your moose if there's one on the side of the road like you can with a deer. Moose are more aggressive animals and may try to lunge at your car. This will endanger you and the car but not harm the moose if it lunges forward with its antlers in front. Instead, drive without changing the vehicle's speed as you pass the moose.
- Also, moose are dark in color, making it more difficult for you to see them at night. Always drive cautiously if you think a moose is nearby.
- If you swerve to avoid a deer or deer on the road and hit something else, such as a safety fence or a tree, your car insurance will sue you for an at-fault accident and have you pay for the collision yourself (collision deductible). If you hit an animal you will pay a comprehensive deductible which is often less than the collision reduction.
- The eyes of the moose also reflect light like the eyes of a deer. The problem is that because moose are so tall, the animal's eyes are usually above the headlights of most vehicles, making it harder to reflect headlights. This can make moose very difficult to see at night.
- The deer whistle (a device for communicating with deer) is just a trick; don't expect this tool will work.
- Do not drive if you are sleepy or drink alcohol. Being conscious is not only a prerequisite for safe driving, it is also important for avoiding collisions with animals.
- Moose have been known to kill even wild bears to protect their cubs. Deer have injured or killed humans to protect their babies. Even if you don't mean any harm to the chicks, deer or antelope won't catch them that way.
- These tips will NOT work for other quadrupeds such as horses or wildebeest, they can only be used safely against antelope or moose.
