Wednesday night, I almost hit a deer. Meeting an oncoming truck on a two-lane rural Idaho highway (U.S. 20), I dimmed my lights and he dimmed his (or she). We passed each other just fine, doing 55 mph. As usual, I was looking down and to the right to avoid the glare from the oncoming truck's lights. A split-second after we passed, there she was, a big doe smack dab in the middle of my lane. There was no oncomming traffic in sight, no traffic behind.
The doe was crossing the road from my right to left. The two trucks apparently led her to change her mind. When I spotted her, she had just completed her reverse turn and was starting to trot off the road. She just made it before I would have nailed her.
When close calls like that happen, I like to run the scenarios through my mind to see if something better could have been done. In this case, I have the deer to thank for our trucks still-intact front end. Otherwise, the thing to do would have been to hit the deer. Stomping on the brakes would have done no good. There was not enough time to stop. Swerving to avoid the deer would have been worse as I would risk losing control of the truck.
I post this in the newbies paradise forum because many straight-newbies don't go to school to get their CDLs. The instinctive thing for most drivers to do is to try to avoid hitting a deer. That might work for cars in some cases but not as often for trucks. Truck driving schools instruct truck drivers to hit the deer. If you can, slow down as much as you can to minimize damage, but do not swerve. Doing so, risks loss of control and sets you up for an accident much worse than striking a deer would involve.
When Diane and I attended our new-contractor orentation last year, I was surprised to learn that hitting another vehicle is considered an accident, but hitting a deer is considered an incident. When I quipped, "That's because deer do not have lawyers." the safety officer leading the class agreed.
The doe was crossing the road from my right to left. The two trucks apparently led her to change her mind. When I spotted her, she had just completed her reverse turn and was starting to trot off the road. She just made it before I would have nailed her.
When close calls like that happen, I like to run the scenarios through my mind to see if something better could have been done. In this case, I have the deer to thank for our trucks still-intact front end. Otherwise, the thing to do would have been to hit the deer. Stomping on the brakes would have done no good. There was not enough time to stop. Swerving to avoid the deer would have been worse as I would risk losing control of the truck.
I post this in the newbies paradise forum because many straight-newbies don't go to school to get their CDLs. The instinctive thing for most drivers to do is to try to avoid hitting a deer. That might work for cars in some cases but not as often for trucks. Truck driving schools instruct truck drivers to hit the deer. If you can, slow down as much as you can to minimize damage, but do not swerve. Doing so, risks loss of control and sets you up for an accident much worse than striking a deer would involve.
When Diane and I attended our new-contractor orentation last year, I was surprised to learn that hitting another vehicle is considered an accident, but hitting a deer is considered an incident. When I quipped, "That's because deer do not have lawyers." the safety officer leading the class agreed.
