Driving home tonight (around 5:40 or so) from Sunriver on the newly constructed northbound lanes (which are very nice), I came about three feet from clobbering a gigantic bull elk (who had an enormous rack of antlers) who decided to skip across the highway in the dark. My car is little and weighs about 42 pounds and would have easily been totaled had I not slammed on my brakes and swerved at the last second.
What’s funny (and sad at the same time) is that the area where the near-miss occurred was less than 100 yards (at most) from the underpass on the northbound lanes that was built specifically for wildlife to use to avoid going across the road (it’s not on the map, but it’s there). Needless to say, Mr. Elk didn’t get the memo to use the safe(r) passage.
Comments
Needless to say, the elk must have used MapQuest.
Thank God you were able to avoid that collision! You would have been canned, literally.
Reminds me of the (supposedly true) story of a citizen who was angry about the placement of a deer crossing sign. He wanted it taken down because he thought it was dangerous for the deer to cross where they were.
All commuters hate commuting, it’s an odd fact of life. Come to commutehell.com and vent and rage and keep your sanity basking in the glow of the failures of others. We need content, so come on down!
I can totally relate. I live just south of Atlanta and just after my harrowing commute of 50 miles from the city to the burbs….I drive on “the circle,” which is fairly populated, not rural by any means, but the deer population is so out of control that there is a portion of the road, we’ve dubbed “deer alley.” The other night, I’m driving in the pitch black, being careful on every turn, when sure enough, there she is….just standing there in the middle of the road. I hit the breaks but did not have time to stop my Nissan Versa before taking out the entire front end and both air-bags being deployed. Yes, I killed the deer too, which did not make me feel any better.