My daughters Emma and Becca and I were driving home from the Spokane Temple on Saturday evening when a big fat whitetail doe meandered out in front of me. It was raining; the road was wet, I slammed on my brakes, and she just kept coming.
WHAM!-thmp.
I pulled over as quick as I could and left the Jeep running. The windshield wipers kept windshield-wiping, vvvvvgungk. vvvvvgungk. I got out to see the damage.
A smashed turn-signal lens, a cracked grill, a big shallow dent in the door (which I didn’t even see until later), and some deer hairs. This is not the stuff of catastrophic accidents. While I looked, here came a pickup pulling up right behind us, his headlights glaring in. I walked back to see who came, and lo and behold it’s my friend Steve from work. He volunteered to help and grabbed a pair of gloves and a cell phone to use as a flashlight. (At night when it’s overcast, it’s darker than the inside of a cow around here.) Blood flowed from under the doe’s head, and her eyes were still open. We each took one glove, grabbed a leg, and hauled her off to the side of the road.
It’s sad.
It’s sadder that I can’t use the meat. I go hunting and don’t see boo, but this is the third deer I’ve killed driving a vehicle. We’re not allowed to use that meat; we have to let it rot at the side of the road. Go figure.
But that doe was heavy. Think about it. On three separate occasions I’ve been travelling at sixty miles an hour or better, and collided with a 150-pound weight atop 30” spindly legs,. And this is all the damage I’ve sustained?
I have to conclude that somebody’s watching out for me.
I've heard that those deer whistles you mount to your bumper work really well. It's just too bad that cars don't have any moving parts that the deer can see . . . their prey-wired brains just don't seem to get the fact that cars can move, even if they don't have legs or tails.
So sorry to hear about the accident! And yes stinky you can't use the meat! I guess people would be more likely to try and hit animals if that were allowed…is that the thinking behind wasting?
WE hit a 700 lbs elk in the fog going 40 mph and it totaled the front of our truck.Those deer whistles didn't work for us- but anything is worth a try so we don't hit those beautiful creatures.Never could understand the no meat law!
Thanks for you input, y'all. I've emailed Fish & Game about this regulation. We'll see what happens …but just in case, I'll resend it to them every two weeks for a year and see what they do.