Cycling friend collided with deer !
 

A friend posted a picture of herself on FB today being treated in the ER of a local hospital after colliding with a deer while riding. She says she’s ok but there was quite a bit of blood in the photo and she had a head bandage. 😳
Ive hit several of them in a car but never on a bike !

I really think that's what happened to me back in July of 2019. However I have no memory of the event and no witnesses. Just a fleeting memory of a yearling bounding off into the woods and at the time a helmet cracked in 11 places and my skull cracked in 3 places. I really do feel that momma deer must have come out of the brush and jumped over me with her 250 pounds or so.

Glad your friend is apparently okay. Took me till December to start feeling normal again after my concussion. The following anniversary of my wreck I rode the same route and there were five deer standing on the trail where I crashed. Altogether there were about a dozen deer at various places along the 11 mile MUP.

So now when I see that cute fawn or yearling on the road or trail, I'm watching for momma deer and others. I slow down too!

I've nailed one with the car, and missed another by inches while I was riding my motorcycle at night. That last one REALLY got the adrenaline pumping!!! By the time I saw it standing in the middle of the road and recognized WTF it was I was looking at, locked up the brakes ('80s Honda V65 Sabre with full Hondaline fairing), I still skidded past it at about 25mph... It never flinched or moved until I was stopped, turned my head around to face it, and screamed bloody murder! It about killed me, alone on a deserted road in the middle of the night. Nobody would have know what had happened unless I happened to hit it square and killed us both...

I’ve come very close a couple of times while touring. If I’m descending in an are where I think they might be present I have taken to shouting “Yo, deer!”

A guy I used to ride with hit a deer and was severely injured - it's absolutely no joke to hit one of those! I've come close as we've got tons of them locally but so far I've been spared the pleasure.

Like Iride01, a friend of mine had no recollection of getting run over by an elk near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He worked in town and commuted to his house outside of town and one evening his wife had an intuition something was wrong and went looking for him. Found him in the ditch out cold with a broken femur. If not for elk hair on his bike, it would have been a mystery. I asked him how he feels about elk now, he orders it every time its on the menu.

Almost nailed one in the TR6 - the advantage of being in a car the size of a shoe was that the deer leaped clean over the trunk instead of hitting the side. One hoof tapped lightly on the sheet metal as it went over, but that was it. I guy I know hit a cow in his '6 - the car didn't fare quite so well (no idea how the cow did), but he survived.

Funny, my neighbor got t-boned by a deer while out riding this morning. He was okay, just some road rash from the crash and a sore jaw from what he thinks was the deer’s head. This was on a bike trail just outside town— Gallup path down by Parker Mill for you familiar with A2— so he was probably fortunate it didn’t happen on a roadway. Deer are thick as thieves in Ann Arbor, and out n’ about in plain sight even during the day. It’s kinda weird.

Rental SUV outside of Durango. It was like "what happened..." as we gasped in the airbag smoke and powder. Front end was really smashed in and deer was very dead. Next day at the rental agency, agent said you should have seen the car that hit a moose. Glad we were protected by metal and airbags. There's a section of road there that has warning lights flashing when deer come within range and trigger the sensors. We were very cautious for the rest of the trip.

There's a sign outside of Mazama, WA with yearly deer kill totals.

I was rolling at a good clip down a slight hill on a MUP a few years ago. Dead tired, long ride, HOT day, head looking down resting..a couple miles from the end of the ride. MUP was through a swamp on both sides with a little grass along the trail...middle of nowhere. I looked up and saw a doe just off the trail and about 5 feet ahead of me. I'm cruising at about 20mph. We both saw each other at the same moment..I think we both were equally surprised. She bolted as I came by and jumped over my rear wheel. I cringed and thought she was going to take me out as she was jumping as I arrived..split second later she was gone..near miss. freaked-me-out.

Deer in a swamp is weird.

I was on my motorcycle cruising on a secluded country road near Glen Rose, TX going 70mph (the speed limit). A deer shot out and actually hit me in the right leg. It even scraped up the right fairing. If it had ran out a fraction of a second sooner and I would have hit it head on that would have been it for me.

And about 20 minutes later on another road three deer shot out and I split between them. One passed me from the front and the other two went behind me. Just a few feet to spare. I rode home after that.

STRAVA IS COOL because it shows the exact data info when a wild MAMA hog ran into me resulting in 2 cracked ribs, punctured lung, cracked scapula, impact trauma to left shoulder

4/27/2020
1:25AM
Speed 20.1 mph
At mile 34 of a planned overnight 100 miler
4 very slow mile ride back home

p.s. the bike was fine!!! :thumb::thumb:

how can you manage to hit a deer with a bike? like acc lol

Around here (Maryland) deer are rampant and evolution does not yet seemed to have convinced deer to look both ways before they cross the road. A few years ago a deer tried to leap over our car (which we had just bought brand new 3 days before) and did thousands of dollars of damage and my daughter has had several encounters where they ran into the side of her car.

On the bike, I ride mostly rural roads and I'm covering the brakes downhill and I almost never top out pedaling my high gear anymore - if it isn't deer, it is other varmints.

One improvement: a few years ago I bought a Garmin Varia radar taillight. With that I can ride further to the left than I normally would (even using a bar end mirror) and get a good advanced warning from the radar if a car is coming. Being able to that gives me more reaction time and better visibility.

It happened on a route that I frequently ride. There’s a Ghost Bike there in memory of him.

Bicyclist killed in collision with deer

Dan

I've come within a few yards of colliding with a deer while riding. I've seen them in the roadway on several occasions. Just another thing to be wary of, but in reality to be defenseless against.

OUCH! Glad your friend is ok. Closest call I've had was a fawn running along side of me for maybe 50 ft. before it disappeared into the woods. Surprised I didn't see mama around, was very happy not to have been hit--even by a small deer. See them all over where I live--usually several in my neighbors and my back yards. Lots along side of the road. They're almost tame around here-can usually get within 20-30 ft. before they run off. They love my wife's flower gardens--yum!!

Yup, I ride mostly rural areas at night, so deer and other critters are my main concerns. Even more than the occasional jerk driver.

Although the only animals I've hit while riding a bike are dogs -- and somehow I managed to run over them without falling. The last was a neighbor's big goofy pit bull, a harmless big lug who thought I needed a dog parade and stopped suddenly in front of me. But still could have been painful if I'd fallen. I ran over the dog's haunches, which, for a pit bull, is like a gentle massage. It was fine. I was fine. Not something I'd care to risk again.

Little critters can cause crashes too. A friend fell over a little armadillo that darted into our path while riding home one night a few years ago. Fortunately he fell on the grassy roadside, just some scrapes and bruises. Could have been a lot worse. I've had many close calls with skunks, raccoons, possums, cats, rabbits, even owls and hawks. And a few snakes. Usually I stop for snakes and chase them off the road. The funniest was a toddler skunk that waddled toward me from the pasture, while mama was desperately trying to herd her young'un back to safety. Skunks are hilarious, too friendly for their own good. We rescued a couple years ago when we lived in a rural area, nursed them back to health and released them. They can become domesticated very quickly. So far I've never been sprayed by one.

And a relative was badly injured several years ago when she hit a deer -- it slid up the hood and the antlers jabbed her face. She needed a lot of reconstructive surgery. I can see why some folks prefer those massive trucks and SUVs with squared off hoods. Bad for pedestrians and cyclists, due to the compromised sightline. But safer for the drivers and passengers.

On night rides I usually mount two or more single LED headlights. I'll run two at a time, and switch to the third or fourth after the batteries run down on longer rides.

One of my best purchases last year was a NiteRider Lumina Dual 1800. Two LEDs side by side, lens designed to produce an even, shaped beam comparable to a motorcycle headlight, slight overhanging hood to minimize spill into eyes of oncoming drivers, cyclists or pedestrians. The beam is wide enough I can usually spot the glow of critter eyes along the roadsides.

And it'll run 3 hours on medium, 700 lumens, plenty for most situations. On longer rides I'll carry a spare small NiteRider as a backup, since it fits the same quick release mount.

I also use low power lights on my helmet. Not bright enough to really light up where I look, but does catch the reflective eyes of critters grazing or lurking along the roadsides.

BTW, if you want to try a bell to warn critters, the Timber mountain biking bell is the best I've found. It has a simple on/off switch that mutes or releases the clapper. But by adjusting the angle of the bell you can adjust the sensitivity of the bell to the terrain, rate of jingling, etc.

I'm not convinced it really helps with most critters, including deer. I've never seen a bear in Texas, no idea about those. Mostly I use the Timber bell on the MUP to warn pedestrians and joggers. Because it rings continuously it gives them plenty of notice, yet has a rather friendly, pleasant tone, so it doesn't sound like it's nagging people to jump out of the way. It kinda sounds like a miniature ice cream truck bell.

I'll try to remember to switch it to my main road bike for my next night ride and see how the deer react. I see at least half a dozen every ride of 20-30 miles. Occasionally they dart across the road, but usually well before I reach them, no real close calls so far with deer. Sometimes they just look up from their roadside grazing and don't move. I holler "Go home, Bambi!" but they don't listen. They are home.

I've done a good amount of touring in Montana. There are deer everywhere, and they do the same thing: They just wander into the road without a care in the world. When I was back there in 2019 I came around a curve descending Thompson Pass and encountered several just standing in the middle of the road--in the rain. The next day one came through my city park campsite in the middle of a town. On the last day there were a half dozen in another town just wandering around, some in the road, right by a busy convenience store as drivers were coming and going. It's not odd to see nice pickups fitted with steel pipe grates on the front like you see on some cop cars, only bigger. I have to assume it's to protect their investments.

Hoping her recovery is speedy... What comes to mind is how you can go from a normal ride to instantaneously... Messed Up!

Years ago, 2013, feral hogs put me on a long road to a recovery I am still in the process of. The event spanned all of three seconds...

Similar situation for me just a few days ago. Riding on the Sparta-Elroy Trail, coming “down” from the 3rd tunnel doing 17-18 mph, spotted a doe and her fawn about 25 yards ahead of me. I shouted out to get their attention and the fawn bolted right while the doe went to the left. I immediately slowed down in the event that the doe decided to follow her fawn. Fortunately, neither came back to the trail. Looking back, don’t know if it’s best to maintain speed or to slow down? Kind of a crap shoot I guess.

A few weeks ago some of our Club riders in the Fast Group were descending a faily long hill and two of them hit a deer that darted out in front of them. One rider was able to ride his bike back to his car and drive home. The other rider had to take an ambulance ride to the hospital as he suffered numerous broken bones. Knowing the group, and the hill, they were likely going at least 40 mph when it happened.

Try, you know, reading the posts in this thread and maybe you will learn something.

BTW...We don't make fun/light of injuries and deaths here.