Sunday, February 25, 2007

A Different View

What do you call it when you're driving a small car, hit a deer on the highway and survive?

A miracle.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I assume this was Kevin's accident. And yes, a miracle. Or perhaps the pure bastard nature of chance and the difference between life, death, permanent disability.

Three years ago I hit a large kangaroo when I was doing 110 km/h. The car was extensively damaged but I was fine. Before hitting it I had 2 or 3 seconds to decide what to do. There was a truck right behind me that I'd just overtaken. The possibilities of what could have happened are scary. I obviously made the right decision. I still look back on those moments as a new beginning for my life. A bit melodramatic I suppose, but I feel so lucky.

Good luck to Kevin, and good luck to you Sandra, I hope you crawl out from under that pile of work unscathed.

Bill, the Wildcat said...

I've known others who've gotten in wrecks because of deer, and while I'm not one for the pointless slaughter of animals, deer get an undeserved break from folks because they're cute. People can "awwwww" all they want to, but from a driver's standpoint, deer are little more than very large vermin/road hazards when their population gets out of control. John's comment has me wondering if kangaroos are the Australian equivalent.

Just glad this accident wasn't worse than it might have been. Hope everything will work out all right for you two. There aren't many things I can think of as stressful as dealing with a car accident.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Yes John, this is the driver's side windshield after Friday's accident. I've heard some nasty stories about kangaroos. In your accident, one thing stands out to me - your awareness. So many drivers don't pay any attention to the vehicles around them. Knowing you had a truck on your tail is probably the reason you are still walking, and even then, hit a kangaroo at that speed and there's no guarantee.

Bill, I hear you. We have a lot of deer in this area and they can be a real nuisance. I'm an animal lover and I'm big on nature, but I do wish they'd do something about animal crossovers on these highways. We also have plenty of fox, coyotes, skunks, rabbits... you get the idea. And sometimes cattle get free from the farms. If someone stopped to calculate the cost of sending people out to clean up carcasses, of police and emergency services responding to accidents, it wouldn't take long before you could negate the cost of more wildlife tunnels and fencing.

Of course, they have problems with deer in the city too...

Anonymous said...

Living in the Midwest, there are always deer by the side of the road somewhere. Friends of mine live way out on country roads with no street lights and the first time I visited them they warned me about the deer.

I've even seen them very early in the morning on the outskirts of town, a town of eighty to ninety thousand people. One was looking over a guardrail at me one morning one my way to work.

Glad to hear Kevin's okay-judging by that windshield, he's lucky. norby

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

Time to get a truck, which is what I did a few years ago after I t-boned a moose.

Sandra Ruttan said...

We had one Patrick. Hasn't been our month for vehicles.

Christa M. Miller said...

Again - glad he's OK. Yikes! A friend of DH's likewise survived a collision with a moose, which actually penetrated the windshield - on the passenger side.

So the car is totaled? Hope you find a worthy replacement.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Ooohh, moose. Scary. We've seen our share on the road, mostly in the Yukon and Alaska. We also saw bison (see photo on my website scrapbook page) on the road in northern BC. And we had our share of bears. Scariest was when a grizzly ran out in front of us in Kananaskis. Of course, it was scarier for the bicyclist on the side of the road...

pattinase (abbott) said...

Happened to us in a Renault in the late sixties. The deer bounded away but we were smashed. Scary day.

angie said...

Wowza! Glad Kev's okay. Not so good for the deer, though. There is actually technology available to warn drivers about animals on the road, but us big-brained humans don't seem to think it's worth the cash to install it. I understand the frustration with deer (elk are an issue on I17 up around Flagstaff), but we're the ones who put our roads carrying zippy cars and trucks through their territories, so I don't get why we don't take some steps to avoid collisions. Sorry, just my bleedin' heart lefty response. Mostly I'm just glad the evil one's all right, though!

Sandra Ruttan said...

I know what you mean Angie. This technology is news on me, but it's a good idea - when we went up north I wished we had a neon sign to flash at the vehicles going the opposite direction to say 'wildlife on the road'. Still sometimes there's no warning, as in the case when a deer jumps out in front of you. If it's dark out, you can't have high beams on because of oncoming traffic, you can't necessarily see something approaching from the ditch. Don't know if the technology covers that or not.

Anonymous said...

Despite whatever you've talked yourself into believing, I'm very glad Kevin is fine. That's honest and true.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Keep telling yourself that. Maybe this week you can post some more lies about me on the internet, and then go on blogs and infer that my being upset by that action makes me paranoid. It's a real sign that you care.

Mindy Tarquini said...

Yikes. How's the deer?

Sandra Ruttan said...

I think they're serving it at the local hunting club this weekend... (Seriously, I don't know. It was still stumbling in a stunned fashion last Kevin saw.)

Tracy Sharp - Author of the Leah Ryan Series said...

I totally missed the post about Kevin's accident! I'm so glad he's okay!

Anonymous said...

The deer and I had a beer and laughed about it now. He told me it wasn't personal.

But I still don't know the answer as to why the deer crossed the road.

Spy Scribbler said...

Oh my! I hope he's okay! (Kevin, I mean.) I hit a deer on a highway last year.

We were lucky. I saw it jump out, and in that split second I weighed my choices. (Seriously, had a whole pro and con conversation with myself in that split second. Time slows WAY down in those moments, doesn't it?) I sped up and ended throwing the deer fifteen yards, rather than slamming on the brakes and letting it crumple our car.

I don't really know how the physics of all that works out. I just know I'm grateful! I cried over the deer, though.

David Terrenoire said...

I'm happy Kev is OK.

I've hit several deer (not all at once) in my driving career and we once had a deer leap out and hit us, smashing the passenger side window and then disappearing. We never actually saw it. Jesus, that was something.

Still, I love the critters and although I was raised a hunter I could never bring one down. I just couldn't pull the trigger on such a beautiful animal.

Julia Buckley said...

Yikes! My mom had a similar confrontation with a deer, but she never even saw the creature--just suddenly lurched off the road when her windshield inexplicably caved in. Later they saw it lying dead on the side of the road.

Glad you can show us the picture of fractured glass as you tell us your husband is NOT fractured.

Anonymous said...

Oh Julia, he wasn't fractured from the accident. But when he got home I beat the crap out of him for scaring me like that. ;)

(Hi David! Heard something terribly funny about your weekend and Britney Spears...)

Spyscribbler, you're so right about time slowing way down in those situations. It's freaky.