Moto Vs. Deer

[bluhandluke]

I live in a rual area and travel country roads on my commute. A couple of weeks ago I hit a deer while on my way to work. I was riding my XR 650L in 5-th gear, moving along at about 75-80 mph. The deer (a 3-point buck) jumped right in front of me. I did not have any time to react.

The impact threw me off of the bike. Some how I got tangled up with the deer and a tine of his antler stuck me in the left shoulder, leaving a gaping hole 3 inches deep and wide enough to stuff 2 fingers into. The puncture was situated between my clavicle and scapula bones and came very colse to severing a lot of nerves.

I remember tumbling across to pavement a couple of times. I remember the sound of my helmet skidding on the pavement. I didn't feel any pain at this point. After I tumbled, my arms and legs opened up and I did a cart wheel through the air and landed in a ditch on my back.

After I landed, I let out a couple of moans, not because I was in pain, but because I was really scared at this point. I stopped to catch my breath and chech myself out. The first thing I noticed was the road-rash; both forearms were bleeding and both shoulders had it to. I started to feel some pain in my left shoulder, I thought my clavicle was broken, turned out it was only separated. My left ankle started to feel some pain due to an avulsion break.

After the first responders got me into the ambulance, the pain in my knee started in. I later learned I had broke my left tibia just below my knee joint. It needed surgery and I now have a plate and 4 screws holding it together.

I spent 5 days in the hospital recooperaing. I will be another 8 weeks laid up with left leg injuries and the tibia break will take 5-6 months to heal.

I consider myself very lucky to have almost "walked away" from an accident like this. I owe my life to my helmet (Shoei)! I also was wearing Carhart work dungerees and I didn't have any road rash on my legs or hips, just a small scrape on my right knee.

Just before the collision, I passed a car as I had entered a straight-away. I entered the lane again and I thought to myself "I had beter slow down. A deer or something might jump out in front of me." A nano-second later, I hit the deer.

[aakmetz]

Glad your here to post man! good job w/ the helmut, so many w/o these days. Oh yea the voices in your head, stuff like that happens to me, i started listening to them more. Good wishes to your recovery

[camaro_guy_z28]

Wow, awesome story. Good luck with your recovery

[johanssont]

Glad you are OK. A guy on a sportbike center punched a deer in Michigan about 12 years ago and he died. The deer and rider. The guy was going to work around 6:00AM in a fairly big city (Sterling Heights) and the deer came out of nowhere. You got lucky.

[jbird710]

That sounds extremely painful; hope you heal up quick. Sure makes you a believer in helmets, doesn't it?

I went up to Sturgis in 2005 and two close calls with deer. The first one I saw coming only because it was during the day and was easily avoided. The second one was at night on an Interstate highway when a pickup passed me and then nearly swerved off of the road to miss one of the biggest bucks I've seen. The buck was still standing on the side of the road when I got up to where the truck swerved, looking over his shoulder as if he was thinking "What the hell was that?". If that truck hadn't passed me, I might not be here writing this.

[06crf_er]

I was on my GSXR 750 leaving a halloween haunted trail one night when I came into contact with a stupid ass doe standing in the middle of the road as I came around a blind corner. I tried to get up and around the deer in the split second I had and as I came out of the lean the deer stepped right in front of me. I glanced off it and hammered it fairly hard with my right shoulder driving me off the outside of the curve.

Immediately the "slow motion" effect started as I looked off the edge of the curve to see what I was in for. I saw a lane to try to "save" it off the road through multiple road signs, a tree, a telephone pole and its guy wire. I got it in between all of this shit about like I've drawn below and thought to myself "Holy hell I saved it!!!!"

That's when I instantly slammed a stump that was cut off and covered in overgrown weeds. It taco'd me front wheel, slammed my face into the tank and threw me over the bars instantly. Lucky for me, it threw me in a different direction than the bike as I tumbled through the field. I came to a stop to watch my bike tumbling through the field end over end tearing itself apart.

Once I got my thoughts together and made sure I wasn't dead, I realized I was out in the middle of BFE with a bike that was totalled and wouldn't get me home. I was extremely sore but felt lucky to be able to be crawling around. I ended up having to half walk/half crawl a painful 3/4 mile to the nearest house to get someone to call 911. I had lost my cell phone in the mutiple flips through the field.

I was so lucky to be alive after the near misses I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I haven't bought a new streetbike yet. Not sure if I ever will. I still like to ride the street, just not as much as before.

Deer are extremely unpredictable for sure. Glad you're still here with us to tell your story bro. My best wishes to you on a most speedy recovery.

[CFC Motosports]

I have had many close calls with deer while on a bike but have never hit one.

Sorry to hear about your accident & hope you have a good recovery.

[Original_Prankster]

Glad you're OK, did you have a riding jacket (Leather or Textile) on? and you wouldn't happen to have pics of the antler hole would you, cause i want to see that one

[busted bones]

None of you guys have ever heard of a deer whistle before?

[rmxtgh]

bambi is cute in a field....not so cute on the road.....

[durangoman]

You are lucky. Many riders dont survive collisions with animals.

[bluhandluke]

Thanks for all the get well wishes, I really do appreciate it. It gets my mind off the pain, if only for a moment. I forgot to mention, 3 broken ribs under my left armpit, a chipped bone in my right wrist, and sprained wrists all around. It makes for a great time with the crutches!

I do have a picture of what the antler did. I was taken 5 days after the fact, so it's not as grusome as it was in the ER. I'll try to post it as soon as I can. It's still a crazy thing to think about, getting gored by a buck!

[bluhandluke]

Glad you're OK, did you have a riding jacket (Leather or Textile) on? and you wouldn't happen to have pics of the antler hole would you, cause i want to see that one

Here you go OP...

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/bluhandluke/IMG_1326.jpg

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/bluhandluke/IMG_1328.jpg

[jkent27]

Glad to hear you're ok. How the deer make out? Did he stick around to make sure you were ok or is he in your freezer?

[bluhandluke]

Glad to hear you're ok. How the deer make out? Did he stick around to make sure you were ok or is he in your freezer?

My brother in law told me he was going to get the back-straps, but never did. He became coyote bait.

I destroyed that buck. I blew out his abdomen, broke his back, neck and crushed his skull. He had been feeding in an alfalfa field adjacent to the crash site all morning. He was pretty fat with alfalfa when I hit him. He left a "slick" of half digested grass, alfalfa, entrails, hair, bone and blood for about 200 ft. down the road where he slid. It was a site to be seen.

[Just_Ride_595]

wow. you got away pretty lucky to have your life after that one. the antler hole is gruesome. what are the doctors doing to remedy something like that?!

get well soon!

[Navy509]

Jesus that hole is nasty! What do you do for a wound like that, just let it grow in, or fill it with silly putty?

Glad your, uh... semi-OK. Hows the bike?

[ericinmichigan]

We have plenty of deer around here too. I'm glad to hear that you'll be fine. Stupid deer...it's too bad that they aren't a little smarter so they could maybe figure out that roads are deadly. At night, I tend to ride pretty slowly or try to follow right behind a car or something so that they basically "clear the way" for me regarding deer. I've often tried to imagine why they jump into the road. I think they must realize that a vehicle is dangerous and getting close, so they freeze. Then the vehicle gets too close and they decide to bolt. I would imagine that a car looks like a big scary animal to them...who knows though.

[MNMike]

None of you guys have ever heard of a deer whistle before?

Deer Whistles are worthless. There are plenty of studies out there, let me know if you have any trouble finding them. The only one's that reliably work correctly are the electronic ones, and they are just as likely to cause the deer to charge you as to run away.

[bluhandluke]

Jesus that hole is nasty! What do you do for a wound like that, just let it grow in, or fill it with silly putty?

Glad your, uh... semi-OK. Hows the bike?

Thank god it isn't that painful. My wife (God bless her) has to re-pack it every day with this woven cotton ribbon. When it first happened, it took about 3 feet of ribbon to fill the hole:eek: . It has to heal from the inside-out.

The bike looks fine. No fluids leaking out or anything obviously bent. The crash ripped off the plastic mounted to the fuel tank and the left side of the bike is scraped up. A buddy of mine came out after the crash and rode the bike back to my house about 2 miles away. I haven't had a chance to really look at it, but I think it's good to go. ?

Thanks again for all the get well wishes!