Deer/bike collision

[pitonpat]

About a year and a half ago I t-boned a leaping deer while descending at about 40-42 mph. I never actually saw the deer, rather a brief image of reddish brown blur and the sensation of hitting a brick wall. In my case the deer leapt off of a steep bank to my right, from dense woods. Up 'til then I had never even thought about the possibility...stupid me!

I suspect that my Lemond went cleanly under the deer with sliding/scraping damage only to the saddle, bar tape, and drive side pedal! Me.. after somersaulting over the deer & the handlebars, and sliding down the road on my helmet and shoulder, I ended up with a concussion, staples in my head, lots of road rash, and about 6 months of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo...a type of vertigo caused by the displacement of otoconia (calcium carbonate crystals) within the vestibular canals of the inner ear. Destroyed the helmet. The deer ran away... I never saw it...too busy picking myself up off the road. I guess it was the adrenaline that made me pick up the bike (didn't want it run over by the next car) and coast the rest of the way down the hill. Sat on a curb at the next intersection, and after realizing that any of the 3 routes home included some big uphills.... I bailed and called my wife for a pickup. Oh, and now I wear a Road ID.

Guess what...I never descend at full speed anymore unless there are open fields and clear sight lines at the roadside!

[Louis]

Impressive !

[pitonpat]

Heart attack, coronary artery disease diagnosis, and stent in a coronary artery.... deer collision... then cut four fingers on the table saw!

[weisan]

恐怖非常！！

[William]

I know y'all think I'm crazy, but after a close call with a buck on a decent, I bark like a dog down any fast hill in a wooded area. No close calls since.







William

[Louis]

Originally Posted by pitonpat

then cut four fingers on the table saw!

Better to cut four fingers on the saw, than to cut off four fingers...

[pitonpat]

Better to cut four fingers on the saw, than to cut off four fingers...

Oh hell yeah... I broke the cardinal rule- reached over and past the blade to guide the piece. The only thing that saved me is I followed the other rule about not raising the blade much higher than the thickness of the piece. Saved my fingertips! Holy schnikes, the 2 numbing needles in each finger in succession was the most painful thing ever... way more than the cutting itself!

Got some scar tissue, but everything works now. During recovery I had to do all my chain ring up-shifting with my thumb or reach across with my right hand. Must have looked pretty funny but I still rode...

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by Louis

Deer are just about the stupidest animals out there.

Turkeys make deer look like Stephen Hawking.

Not only are turkeys dumb, they are mean dumb.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by zott28

It's easy to get up to 40+mph on that stretch of road. Glad they guy lived. That will forever be ingrained in my mind while descending into Sausalito.

The guy is fortunate he did not go over the guard rail. That's a quite a drop on the other side. I would never guess a deer being in that spot.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by pitonpat

Oh hell yeah... I broke the cardinal rule- reached over and past the blade to guide the piece.

I used to have a 12" radial arm saw that I never used much, and certainly not enough to ever get comfortable with it. In fact, that might have been a good thing, because sometimes that's when accidents happen. I always had images of my left hand slipping at just the wrong time, and not being able to yank the thing back before it whacked half my arm off.

It took up too much room in my garage for the use I got from it, so I finally just gave it away to a guy at work who is building his own barn. Strangely enough, just a few days before he came by to pick up the saw he was using a pretty big crane and lifted too much at the wrong angle and had the whole thing tip over...

[thwart]

Relieved to read that it was just lacerations, not lost fingertips.

That pic makes your fingers look short… too short. Amputation type short.

Well, you know what they say about guys with long thumbs…

[rwsaunders]

Originally Posted by William

I know y'all think I'm crazy, but after a close call with a buck on a decent, I bark like a dog down any fast hill in a wooded area. No close calls since.

William

Who are you kidding Willie...you've been barking like a dog since you were a pup.

[Elefantino]

Oh, and squirrels are stupid, too.

[lucasfarr92]

The most important thing obviously is how the deer is. Just kidding, I want to know the bike damage!

[Louis]

Based on my multiple interactions with deer I say chances are nearly 100% that it was well enough to run off. Whether or not there was long-term damage is harder to say.

Somewhere on this forum is my story about when I was hit by a flying deer (while cycling). Yup - it's true. Two deer were running perpendicular to the road on which I was riding. A truck was coming toward me. The first deer made it through, but the second was hit by the truck. It bounced off and came flying toward me, hit me and knocked me down. When I got up I looked around and saw it lying in the road scrambling it's legs. I then turned around to look at the folks in the truck, who were getting out, and when I turned back to look at the deer a second time it was running off into the woods. However, given the violence of the impact with the truck, I would guess that there must have been some internal damage to the deer. I know that my shoulder was hurt, and for a few days I had some non-trivial pain.

Based on that (and cases when I've hit deer while driving) I'd say that a cyclist isn't going to do too much immediate damage to a deer.