On Friday, May 29th, I was perusing my Facebook newsfeed when I came across this post: A fawn hit by a car that was coming down an off-ramp. This always hits me hard because I work with these wildlife species that are so susceptible to cars and roadways, most of the time becoming susceptible to mortality as well. The next day, Saturday, May 30th, I was driving up Interstate 95 in between Massachusetts and New Hampshire and saw not one, not two, but THREE deer dead along the sides of the highway. One of the deer I saw hit was when I was coming through the New Hampshire tolls after the Hampton Beach exit, and was stuck incbetween the barriers built to separate the EZ-Pass and Cash Only lanes. This is very disheartening and sad to see how the wildlife around us are so easily susceptible to the major transportation infrastructures we build for our transportation needs. So, by now most of you might be asking yourselves, how do we go about solving this issue?
What to Do When You See a Deer
What happens when most people see a deer in the middle of a roadway system (i.e., road, highway, interstate, etc.) is they don’t know what to do. Most people end up swerving their car and injuring themselves, or having the front fender of their car collide with the deer. What people should become more aware of is the steps to take if you’re put in the situation where you’re about to hit a deer on the road, such as the ones provided in this video I found and supported by State Farm Auto Insurance Company. The most important step is to always buckle-up; wearing your seatbelt will ensure that if you do end up hitting a deer, or anything that has a hard impact to your vehicle, you’ll be protected and not suffer as much of the significant injuries as you would if you weren’t wearing your seatbelt. Often times what happens when a person is encountered with a deer on the road is there is not a lot of time to react; you’re put into an almost state of shock and you need to act faster than you can think, or so it seems. Though it may seem inevitable to hit the deer, there are steps you can take to prevent this from occurring.
The Steps You Can Take
The first and probably most obvious step when you encounter a deer on the road is to slow down your vehicle; do not try and outrun a deer with your vehicle and instead slow your vehicle down so the deer has a chance to cross. This will also help other cars notice something is going on by seeing your break lights illuminated. The second thing you can do is turn on your high beams when you’re driving at night; this will ensure your illuminating as much of the road as you can to see clearly. If you do encounter a deer and your high beams are on, be sure to slow down your vehicle and also switch off your high beams to your low beam lights; bright illuminating lights can blind an animal, and switching to low beam lights will allow the animal to move safely out of the way of the vehicle. Another thing to do when driving is to scan the sides of the road and the road itself, especially if you’re driving through an area that has forested or woodsy areas; scanning will allow you to see a deer before it seems too late, and if you do see a deer, be hesitant and cautious before continuing to drive as there could be more deers following and coming to cross the road as well. Also ensure that if you do see a deer and end up needing to break or stop your vehicle that you do so safely and cautiously as this could also cause a chain reaction to the cars coming behind you on the road. Another thing to keep in mind about deer is that they’re usually seen at the times around dusk and dawn; though they could come out at any point during the day and a person should always be scanning the road, driving extra cautiously during these times and following the steps given from this post and the video will ensure you’re doing absolutely everything you can to protect deer, as well as other wildlife species, from being susceptible to a vehicle collision and adding to the number of wildlife mortalities that continue to grow.
A last and very important step to add to this is to make sure you do not swerve your vehicle; swerving your vehicle could cause damage to other drivers if your swerving into another lane of traffic, or cause you to hit something else, such as a guardrail or tree. If you do hit a deer by chance because there was absolutely no time to stop your vehicle from doing so, the video also ensures that the windshield is strong enough to withstand the impact of the deer hitting it. Though sometimes it may be inevitable to hit a deer in the road because there is only so much time between your vehicle and the deer, these are important, effective, and efficient steps that will help reduce the number of deer we see lying on the side of roads and hopefully create more awareness of what can be done to help stop wildlife being susceptible to our major transportation infrastructures.
