To fear driving over deer collisions.

[Avoidingthewildlife]

NC
I have been driving for many years but in the last 10 years due to large areas being developed, collisions with wildlife are becoming commonplace.
I have developed a fear of driving in case an animal runs into the road, and yet I continue to drive, hoping that by facing my fear, it will lessen. This doesn't appear to be the case.
I avoid driving at sunrise and sunset, stick to the speed limit, remain vigilant, but somehow, I need to switch my anxiety off.
I no longer enjoy driving.
What tips do you have to avoid animal collisions?
Why do I feel like the only driver who is anxious about this? I want to be like other drivers who tell me they don't consider animals running in the road when planning their journeys.
Is there a foolproof way of driving and avoiding collisions with wildlife?
Do you worry about animals running in the road and how do you manage it?

I can understand this. Every few years, someone in my town is killed by a deer colliding with their car.
There is nothing you can do about it though. Just drive according to the conditions.

Yes I live in the New Forest and so it's unavoidable for me, I can sometimes take a route that avoids crossing the Forest but not always. Every journey I pass over the cattle grid I breathe a sigh of relief that nothing bad happened.

Nothing you can do about it that you're not doing already, but statistically the odds of it happening are pretty low, so you need to have a word with your anxiety about that.

I had to stop last Saturday for a whole herd of deer crossing the road in broad daylight, there must have been 30 of them! Usually it's mainly ponies, donkeys or cows that I need to look out for and the odd deer. It's driving in the dark I hate, daytime is OK.

This seems like a bit of a weird worry. I’m rural. There are a few roads where you might encounter a deer and these have warning signs, so it makes sense to reduce speed and be alert on those roads, but there are many many roads where deer are not a hazard.

Don’t get me started on the kamikaze pheasants though.

I live in an area with lots of deer. They are big and they can just leap straight out of hedges so can be impossible to see until the last minute. The main thing you can do is drive slowly.

I have no idea if these work or not .but it might give you a feeling of security when you are driving.

You can't avoid or swerve them I'm afraid because you'll likely have an accident and die

I live in the country and deer collisions (amongst other animal collisions) are very high. It is an unavoidable fact. You can do all the right things, that you are currently doing, but one is never completely unavoidable. Larger vehicles around here can get bar guards or grill guards for the front of their truck but it doesn't prevent the accident, just tries to keep the deer from hitting the windshield. I wouldn't stop driving. Just know you will be as aware and careful as you can be and keep living life.

Could you enrol in a cookery course so you knew that if the worst was to happen, at least there would be some good that came of it ?

But where you can drive slowly drive slowly

I mainly mean on a motorway or A road when you're driving faster do not swerve to avoid as it's very dangerous

First reply. Way to go to make an anxious poster feel even worse!

It is true. People do get killed by deer running out in the road.
It does happen where I live.
All all OP can do is drive safely.

I've had the same with kangaroos. In the areas where I knew they were, I'd slow way down at night.

The funniest was when a group bounded across the road and one tripped and fell on its face. Got up, looked a bit startled, and ran off.

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I know it's true but I dare say it's not what OP was hoping for. Generally when someone says they're scared of X, people don't reply with "You're right, X kills people all the time".

What are you like 🙄 stop it 😂

I have friends and family who live rurally and they all use a deer whistle on their cars.

It is stuck on the front grill and is activated as you drive - it emits a frequency that deer can hear - it alerts them and makes it less likely for them to run onto the raid.

It's supposed to be very effective, so would be worth getting.

I always thought most people killed in a crash with a deer was because they swerved then hit something else. No idea whether that’s true but it’s what I’ve always been told.

supposedly the deer whistles do help as apparently the deer hears it and stops dead (not actual dead). But you can hear them, they’re at the higher end of the frequencies humans can hear and above. So like those mosquito sound alarm deterrents that supposedly only younger people can hear.

i have hit quite a number of animals, both as a passenger and driver. I remember on one trip to the highlands, in 1.5 hours we hit 6 pheasants. They’re pheasants so didn’t do any damage so not in league of deer. But not great all the same.

honestly I’ve never particularly worried about deer. Sheep on the other hand are more of a concern for me, no worried but as lovely as sheep are, one of their goals in life is to die.

also I’ve always been told, if you’re gonna hit an animal brake as hard as you can, never swerve, and accelerate at the last second (once you’ve reduced your speed significantly) so the nose if the car is up, and means the animal is likely to go under the car, rather than over the bonnet and into the windscreen.

at least we do not have moose, you do not want to think, let alone see the damage they cause.

What would you say then? "Oh OP... no deer get killed.. they get "cuddled" by a car and have a "nice sleep".
No. Deer leap out on the road and they sometimes leap into a car and everyone dies.
OP's anxiety wont protect them from the reality.

No of course not. But most people would reply with some form of platitude. Or at least try to soften it a little bit.

I drive on a deer filled road on the way to work. This year someone caused 7K of damage to their car hitting a deer. Someone else at work hit a deer but in the brand new, delivery mileage, fancy work vehicle I think it cost about 12K in the end. New cars have lots of fibreglass at the front for pedestrian safety and it damaged all the sensors behind.

Whilst not ideal no humans were hurt in the process. In the case of the second vehicle the deer got up and ran off so I'm assuming it was just dazed. Just drive carefully and make sure your insurance is up to date. Do not swerve just grit your teeth and brake should the worst happen.

I wont soften something that happens.

I used to live near a large forest which contained deer herds and I was quite worried about collisions.
I remember driving along the road once and seeing a herd of deer running in a long line in a field alongside the road when suddenly they broke through the hedge and streamed right across the road. We were already slowing down but luckily the traffic stopped in both directions. Then there was a gap and just as we were thinking of moving again half a dozen more deer, stragglers (including a couple of babies) also ran across.
Genuinely frightening.

It could be worse imagine if you hit a deer and the rest of the herd came back to give the car a good trampling

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/28/asia/elephant-baby-malaysia-highway-accident/index.html

In 26 years of driving, and living rurally, I have hit 2 deer. The first one was quite big and leapt into the front of my small car, I was doing around 60mph. The deer was killed and it split the radiator in my car. But I was fine, the car was repaired, sad for the deer but no other harm done. And then I also hit a tiny little deer which got up and ran off, that was on a smaller lane, no damage to my car. I think you’d have to be super unlucky to be badly hurt by hitting a deer, the chances are absolutely minuscule. I think you need to try and get it in perspective, it’s a pretty rare event and the chances of a catastrophic outcome even if it does happen are tiny, so tiny it’s not worth even thinking about let alone obsessing over.

We hit a whitetail deer doing 110kph on a highway here in Canada. No time to react - it leapt out of long grass right into our path. It caused $15,000 damage to the front of the vehicle, mainly to the bodywork and also the radiator. We were all perfectly fine. Poor sod at the repair shop who had to power wash the undercarriage said it was grim.

As PP said, be grateful you don’t have elk or moose to contend with as well.