https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLN9pU4pXcI
Here's further proof that deer can show up out of NOWHERE and wreck your day. And your car.
In this wild accident that went down in Northwest Montana, a white-tailed deer ran out right in front of a Volkswagen Beetle, got hit at full speed, and was launched about 50 feet in the air. A driver headed the other way just happen to record the whole thing on their dashcam, so you get a pretty crazy look at just how far the deer went flying.
Surprisingly, no CGI effects were used in the making of this clip. This is 100% real. Pretty crazy, right?
Read More: This Is What It Looks Like When a Cop Car Speeding at 114 MPH Hits a Deer
What's odd here is that there weren't five more deer behind this one trying to cross the road in rapid succession. Typically, when a single deer runs out into the road, an entire herd follows. But, in this case, it was just the one. The one very, very unlucky deer.
Unfortunately for the deer, the Beetle driver did the right thing in this case. While it may be most drivers' gut instinct to suddenly brake or swerve when a deer runs out into the road, doing this can lead to a much worse accident. You could hit a tree, a guardrail, or even another car. If you don't have enough time to slow down, you're better off hitting the deer head-on. Which is what the driver did here.
Considering the deer basically dashed out from a blind side, the Volkswagen driver probably didn't have much time to react either way. So, it's not like he could've braked or swerved, even he wanted to. Good for him, bad for the deer.
This post was originally published on August 27, 2019.