A Wake Up Call: Deer Plays Chicken

If you are regular on the early shift, you know what it is like at 4.30 am. It is dead quiet, the sky is just starting to lighten, before the sun comes up, and you are usually coasting along on autopilot thinking about the day ahead.

But it turns out we have some new wildlife sharing our morning commute, and it nearly ended very badly.

I was driving along the back road from Moor Row to Woodend this morning when a young deer bolted straight out of the hedge and ran right in front of the car. I slammed the brakes on and missed it by a gnat’s knacker. The deer won the game of chicken and ran off completely fine.

The car did not do quite as well. The force of the emergency stop has snapped or badly bent the driver's side wishbone. The wheel has shifted right back and is rubbing on the wheelarch, so it is currently sitting at the local garage waiting to be sorted.

It could have been a whole lot worse, though.

In all the years I’ve lived in Moor Row, I have never once seen a deer on that stretch of road. That half-light just before sunrise is tricky. You think you can see fine because it is waking up, but that flat, grey dawn light makes it incredibly easy for something to blend into the hedges until the exact second it leaps out.

The saving grace was that I was only doing 30mph.

Because I was doing a sensible speed, I just about managed to stop in time. If I had been doing 60mph, or more, like a lot of people do down that road, I wouldn't have stood a chance. At that speed, your stopping distance is massive, and hitting a deer full-on usually sends the weight of it straight through the windscreen. It writes the car off and causes proper, serious injuries.

So if you are commuting out of the village in the mornings or evenings, just keep your eyes peeled and maybe ease off the accelerator a bit. 

There is at least one deer out there at the minute with a death wish, and the next person past might not be doing 30mph.

Drive safely.