ducksie: No, but I saw joe mama yesterday when I pulled her out of a ditch. She whined about the expense so I told her she should call her insurance company. Naturally she didn’t have any. Or a driver license. The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. Happy holidays.

You can total your vehicle and badly injure yourself and/or your passenger(s) if you hit a tree. Unless you’re driving a low-slung car, and the animal comes through the windshield, people rarely get hurt hitting an animal. A Range Rover is pretty stout and would likely not incur a whole lot of damage in a dance with a deer, but no vehicle wins when cha-cha-ing with an oak.

Physics 101 tells you almost any vehicle weighs much more than a deer, thus imparting more energy (and damage) to the deer. It doesn’t take a very large tree to stop a car cold. Even if you mow down some saplings, it’s very likely there’s bigger trees in there with them.

I’ve towed many cars that have hit wildlife to body shops for repair. I’ve towed many cars that have hit trees to the junkyard. Swerving to miss an animal can, and often does, result in hitting another car or leaving the road and rolling, etc.

Bottom line: Brake hard without losing control, in order to lessen the impact, and don’t swerve. You have no way of knowing which direction the deer may go and you’d be surprised at how often they end up darting the same way you’re swerving. Drastically reducing your speed gives the animal time to move out of your way. And if they don’t, you hit them at a lower speed.

If you see one crossing the road ahead don’t assume you’re out of the woods (so to speak). There’s a good chance the one that’s already across has company following behind. Lastly, speeding might get you a ticket, but in deer country it’ll likely be the difference between a hit and a miss, especially going around corners. Slow down and enjoy the scenery.