Scary night.....

Avatar for soccermom03
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Scary night.....
9
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 5:55pm

Last Friday night DD14, her best friend and two other friends went out for an evening of haunted houses and a drive through the local park which was decorated for Halloween. One of the friends, a boy, has been driving for almost a year and has a good driving record so we allowed DD to go along. He was driving his mom's brand new Suburban. They were having a great time and had just dropped one of the others off at his home way out in the country and were on their way back into town to our house. A huge buck jumped out into their path and they hit it. The policeman that came later told them he knew they weren't going very fast or the deer would have flipped up over the bumper and gone through the windshield, probably killing the driver and front seat passenger (DD's best friend). The boy driving did a great job keeping the vehicle on the road and not panicking. All three kids were scared to death. DD called DS to come and get them- his speed dial number was the only one she could think of in her panic. He got them home safely and they told us the gruesome details, including DS' assessment of the situation: "there was basically deer everywhere".

They wanted a frightening evening, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't what they had in mind!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2005
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 6:07pm
We live in the country and the deer are a major threat to drivers. I'm glad the boy was being responsible and not driving very fast. Hopefully all in the car learned a lesson from "what could have been".
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2006
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 6:25pm

Sending up a quick prayer of thanksgiving for your DD and her friends. Scary is right!

We don't have deer running into our streets her in SoCal ... the streets are scary all by themselves. Too many cars going too fast.

 

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2000
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 10:26pm

Glad the kids are all OK.

Pam
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
Tue, 10-24-2006 - 1:52pm

I'm glad everyone was alright. There are areas in nearby towns that have deer crossing signs on some major roads. However, last winter I saw a deer about a mile from my house, which was the first time I had ever seen one in town in the 17 yrs. I have lived there. It was a really residential neighborhood, but it came out of the cemetery area. I was so shocked that my first reaction was "why is there a deer statue in the street?" It just stood there for a few seconds and then ran away.

I do car accident cases as a lawyer and I have had 2 people coming in the past 2 days where young teenagers were hit by a car crossing the street. You would think that by age 13 or 14, a child would know to look before crossing the street, but not necessarily. I didn't take the first case because it looked like the kid was crossing the street w/o looking, not in the crosswalk and basically walked into a very slow moving car. I think the tire ran over his foot because it was broken.

The 2nd case, it was a 4-lane road, the girl was w/ 2 friends. They crossed the first 1/2 of the street, a car stopped in the next closest lane to let them cross, but a car came by in the farthest lane (for them, it would be right lane for the driver) and hit one of the girls, who has a broken leg. I'm not sure about that one yet.

So I don't know whether it's worse to be the kid crossing the street or the driver who has a kid run out into the path of the car and can't stop. At least these are relatively minor injuries that will heal. I have had cases w/ major injuries involving child pedestrians.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-1999
Tue, 10-24-2006 - 5:57pm

I'm so glad to hear those kids are alright!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-03-2006
Tue, 10-24-2006 - 7:38pm

Scary. Yup, we live in an area where it's bound to happen eventually to all of us. I'm glad to hear everyone was okay!


Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2006
Tue, 10-24-2006 - 9:26pm

I am glad that everyone is okay. They are very lucky. I know what it is like to get a phone call saying your child got into a car accident. One of my daughters was in a pretty bad one a few weeks ago. Well I am glad that everyone is okay.

Natalie

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-07-2005
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 1:54am

What timing!

I'm so glad no one was hurt. Deer are totally unpredictable creatures.

Tonight a huge buck almost stepped out in front of me. I swear, though, that the biggest danger was the tailgater on my bu**. Don't people realize what will happen when the person in front of them has a possible emergency and has to actually hit the brakes while driving 70 mph?? The entire drive back (over an hour) I couldn't take my eyes off the sides of the road, just looking for deer.

To Pam: I knew someone that hit a deer and got out to check it out, and the dang thing jumped up and attacked him. They were literally wrestling on the side of the road. Maybe your deer got up on his own and left, too. I've also heard of people who pick up roadkill to bait traps with... ugh. (I've only eaten roadkill once, but it wasn't actually dead at first.. so it's not as bad as it sounds here.. there are some states that even allow people to pick up roadkill for food, haha)

zz

Avatar for mily12
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-18-2003
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 3:03pm

Thank goodness the driver was a good driver and nothing serious happened to the kids. We have deer around here, also, and I've often thought about what would happen if any of us hit one. I understand the damage can be quite substantial and that the lose of life is a possibility.

I'm happy to hear that the kids didnt' get hurt. Thank goodness, also, that they were driving a large vehicle.

Mily