Two Deer Get lucky As Driver Reaction Saves Them

Last Updated: 01/01/2020

Whether you’ve been driving for one year or 40 years, there is one skill which is vital in keeping you safe and helping you avert danger – your reactions.

Well, two deer have the amazingly quick reactions of a UK motorist to thank after they narrowly avoided serious injury at best, and death at worst, on a quiet country lane.

The driver was driving home at night when she drove around a bend in the country road only for her headlights to suddenly illuminate two deer standing just feet away in the middle of the road.

The video footage is scary as it looks like a certainty that the animals would be struck.

However, the driver performed an incredibly quick and safe emergency stop which allowed the deer to scramble away and dart back through the hedge to safety.

You can watch the video below:

The lane itself could be one of hundreds across the UK.

Narrow with one lane of traffic each way, the road is deserted at night with no illumination and hedgerows hugging each side of the road – there really is nowhere to go if something goes wrong.

As if scripted, the driver is actually a driving instructor herself which makes for an even better story.

She spends hours every week teaching learner drivers how to drive safely, remain in control of your vehicle and of course bring your car to a safe and immediate stop in the event of an emergency.

Those skills and that experience, certainly paid dividends on this occasion as she superbly executed an emergency stop which allowed the deer to scurry away to safety.

Speaking about her traumatic experience in the dead of night, the driver said:

“As I was driving home one evening down this country lane I turned the bend and was confronted by two deers, which has never happened to me before even though deer are very common around my area. As a driving instructor, I’m used to seeing and experiencing some weird and wonderful things on the road. It was only two days prior that one of my pupils had to do an emergency stop about a mile up the road as a deer ran out of the woods during the day.”

Many rural parts of the UK have deer which can stray on to roads.

The results of which can be catastrophic, certainly for the animal but also the driver.

Due to the size and weight, they can cause the driver serious injury if they’re involved in a collision.

While exact statistics are hard to come by, it’s estimated that some 74,000 deer-related accidents occur on the UK roads each and every year.

Highways England add that around 240 drivers are injured in road accidents involving deer each year as well, stats which truly illustrate the scale of the problem.

Thankfully for these deer, they were not about to become part of these statistics and they live to fight another day.

Let’s hope they don’t stray back on to the road any time soon.