Bam

Ever hit a deer before?

I have now. -_-  Rather, she hit me.  I was going up to the fairgrounds to see a training clinic hosted by Brent Sinsel at the Vaccination Clinic being held there, which was organized by April Myers.  I was almost there, when while coming out of a turn, a doe jumped up over the guardrail on the left side of the road and charged across toward where my car was heading.  I immediately tried to slow down, and right before she would have crossed in front of my car, she flipped around like she was going to go back where she'd come from.  For a split second, I thought I was good, but then bam! She spun back around as I passed her and smacked herself right into the side of my fender, right in front of my door.  The force of the hit and forward motion of my car flipped her back into my door and broke my driver's side mirror, scratched the side of my door a little bit, and then she spun a circle and took off running back up the road behind me.  For a split second I had the disconcerting experience of having her face about 6 inches from mine as her head smacked my window.

It scared the crap out of me.  I pulled off just up the road, out of the turn, and got out to look at what damage she had done. See description above.  Thankfully, there were no tire problems, but my door wouldn't open all the way because the fender was dented, and my mirror is shattered on the right half.  Luckily I can still see everything I need to with the other half, which is still intact.

A family member just happened to be behind me when it happened and pulled off ahead of me to see if everything was ok, and the person that had been between us pulled off behind to check, too.  It gave me a little more faith in humanity that a total stranger stopped for me, and was a nice coincidence that my great aunt was back there too.  She helped calm me down a lot (I wasn't hysterical or anything, just had a lot of adrenaline pumping and was shaky) and followed me the rest of the way to the fairgrounds to make sure the car drove ok (it did!).

That night, I called my dad (who is an excellent mechanic), who found a mirror online to replace mine, and the next day, I took my car to him, where he was able to fix my fender so that I don't have to get a new one.  My dad is awesome.

The deer who did this though? Not so awesome.  Not too bright either.  A coworker made the comment that deer are all instinct and no analytic thought - somewhat true.  And that instinct definitely has not developed to include reactions to cars - unfortunately for me and all other motor vehiclists on the road!