Deer Danger
Avoiding accidents involving deer
Every year between 40,000 and 75,000 deer are killed in collisions on Britain's roads - around 5 per cent of the total deer population. These accidents also kill some car occupants, injure hundreds and cause some £11 million of damage to vehicles.
May is one of two peaks for deer accidents, along with October/November, and the AA has published its ten point guide to avoiding accidents with deer.
"Drivers need to understand a little about deer, to think about how they can change their driving to avoid them, and to understand what to do if they do hit and injure one" says Andrew Howard, Head of Road Safety for the AA. "There are also some myths which need to be debunked."
While it's easy to say that drivers should hit a deer rather than engage in any manoeuvre (particularly violent braking or swerving) that may endanger themselves or other road users, it's not actually so easy to do this.
The immediate human reaction is to avoid a collision, and it takes great self control to head for one instead. On the other hand, it's not always easy to show that a car embedded in a ditch is there as the result of a successful deer avoidance, rather than as the result of bad driving.
Any liability is the driver's and the deer, together with any proof it was there, have long departed the scene.
Ten Safety Tips
Understand deer
- Deer accidents peak in May, October and November.
- Sunset to midnight and around sunrise are the worst times.
- Some areas have bigger problems than others - are you in one?
- The "deer" or "wild animal" sign is there for a reason - and means "deer accidents happen near here"
Change the way you drive
- Remember that however well you can read the road and however far you can see there is no traffic, a deer can appear almost instantly. Nature makes them hard to see and they don't follow the green cross code!
- Use full beam headlamps when it is dark - unless of course you are about to dazzle another driver. Dip them if you see a deer, otherwise it may "freeze" in your path.
- Though your instinct will be to swerve or brake hard to try to avoid a deer if one appears suddenly in your path, it will generally be safer to continue on your normal track - sudden manoeuvres can result in a loss of control increasing the risk of hitting a tree or another vehicle for example and causing serious injury to you and your passengers.
If the worst happens
- Make sure that you stop somewhere safe, and if you can't do your best to ensure that your accident isn't hit by other vehicles
- Report the accident to the police (who should be able to contact someone who can assist an injured deer)
A warning
- If you miss the deer (or any other animal), but hit something else, remember it will be very hard to prove that the deer ever existed.
30 April 2008