On Surviving Hitting A Deer, In The Dark, at 55 MPH

Mule Deer

On Surviving Hitting A Deer, In The Dark, at 55 MPH-
I wanted to share this experience because life is full of lots of very unexpected things. Coming back from a day-long road trip Saturday up to the snowy mountains with 3 of our adult kids (and mini-grand baby) I was driving back in the dark with the 5 of us in our car. I was driving our Subaru Outback. The roads were dry. I was doing about 55 in the dark when I noticed a large mule deer running across the road on my left heading right in front of me. I had nowhere to go. I locked up my brakes and hit my horn, felt a thud and the deer jumped over the concrete barrier off to my right. The other side of the concrete barrier was a drop off of at least 1,000 feet down the side of the cliff. I pulled off the road at a high rate of speed and pulled over. I decided not to get out of the car there with the dark and heavy traffic. I got back on the road and pulled off onto a turnout up a bit. My husband and I checked the car and couldn't find literally a scratch on it, just 1 deer hair in the crack when the plastic joins on the front fender. Not only did the deer not cause any damage to the car, I could have likely rolled the car if I had hit the concrete barriers there. I think it would have ricocheted us back out into ongoing traffic. And I think the deer survived! I think it may have been airborne by the time it was in front of the car. My husband said it was a miracle I didn't roll the car. Amen!!!