Gamecock vs. Deer at 70mph

Gamecock

Hey Y'all, Watch This!
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I hit a deer with the ST the other morning and I am thankful to be alive (and well) tonight. It was about 5:30am, on the interstate and I was traveling in the left lane going between 70 and 75. The deer ran out perpendicular to my path of travel and I hit her directly broadside. The bike is totaled (although Progressive has not yet officially declared it so). Defying all logic, I have only a bruise on my right ankle and left knee to show for it. It was incredible that the bike did not go down and I was able to limp over to the emergency lane to park the bike.

I have re-played the collision in my mind many times trying to figure out how I avoided going down. I won't pretend that I made correct "decisions" because it all happened too fast to take conscious actions. Nonetheless, whether through training, instinct, or just dumb luck, I didn't lock my brakes and I didn't try to swerve (not that I had time to attempt a swerve in the first place). I think if I'd done either of those things, I would have gone down.

I saw the deer coming in the corner of my eye a fraction of a second before I hit her. I got on the brake hard, but it was only a couple of tenths of a second before the collision. The impact threw the front wheel hard to the left, but somehow I managed to bring it back. By this time, the front end was shaking violently, probably because the fork was knocked out of whack. But the instant after I hit her, I remember thinking "I'm still up-right! I can save this!" and just kept even pressure on the brakes. I glanced back on my right and saw that the mini-van I was passing had slowed way down now and was probably 50 or so feet behind me, so I pulled into the right lane and just kept on going to the emergency lane where I brought it to a stop and parked it on the side stand.

I'm pretty sure my right ankle is bruised from the deer's legs whipping back against that side of the bike after I hit her. She went spinning off to my right before landing dead on the white line on the right. The state trooper who moved her from the roadway said her skull was crushed, so I think her head hit the glass headlight enclosure (it was completely smashed out). A large chunk of fairing on the right side of the bike tore away and the entire front fairing and console is now out of whack. The little doors on the fairing pockets, for example, won't shut and the whole fairing sits about an inch above the tank where it used to fit flush. The radiator also appears to be destroyed. There may be other damage - I haven't seen the bike since it was hauled off on the back of the wrecker.

I'm not sure how my left knee got bruised. I was wearing my padded pants, but my knee must have smashed into the fairing or something.

I wouldn't try to suggest what actions a rider should take in the same situation. As I said, I don't recall making any conscious decisions in the split second that the collision ocurred. It just happened. But this event has reinforced my opinion that you should never give up or give in to "the inevitable." How many times have you heard "the car turned left in front of him, there was nothing he could do," or "sometimes you don't have any choice but to lay it down," or "if you hit a deer on a motorcycle at speed, you're going down." None of those situations are good, but I firmly believe there is NO situation in which the rider has NO control over his ultimate fate. You may not be able to prevent the crash, but you can still mitigate the damage. No doubt, I defied the odds the other day, but if I had just given up once the collision was inevitable, I might not be alive tonight and I certainly wouldn't have just walked away from it.

At this point, my main concern is how quickly I can get riding again. Due to my odd work schedule, I have been playing a lot of phone-tag with the insurance adjuster, so I haven't yet heard Progressive's proposal. I get the impression she may still be thinking in "repair" mode, but I seriously doubt the bike can be repaired to my standards at any reasonable cost. Have any of you had experience with major repairs to a crashed ST? I'm not in the mood to wait around for months during the Summer riding season waiting for a shop to rebuild this thing only to find that they did a poor job. I'd rather just agree on a settlement amount for the totaled bike so I can go out and buy another one.
 
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Wow...it's every rider's nightmare.

Kudo's for keeping the bike upright...it may have come down to your experience and training that allowed you to unconsciously do the right thing(s)...or it may have been dumb luck. Either way, I'm glad you weren't seriously injured. Good luck with your insurance company.
 
Joined
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STOP IT GUYS! Two deer strikes now? At least you both kept it up. Though I agree that we have little ability to actually prevent us from going down after a deer strike, there is no reason we HAVE TO go down. As I said on the other thread, I have reviewed a lot of youtube footage of deer strikes and the ones that stay up have something in common. They didn't give up and they didn't lock it up. Reminds me of when I was sideswiped in Florida with an 18 wheeler behind me. My bike was totally out of control, but I was not giving up. I increased the speed to eliminate the wobble and then brought it down slowly on the side of the road.

So yeah, Don't give up! Ever!

Glad you too are safe. Now what color is yours?
 

John Anthony

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Sorry about your bike, glad you weren't more seriously hurt and thanks for the extensive debrief and advice. Good food for thought, that's for sure. Hope everything works out well with the insurance company. Can't imagine it wouldn't be totaled.

John
 
Joined
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at that speed just the spinning of wheels will keep you up most times if your going straight , bikes can be replaced , and been there done that with deer , i was not as lucky, glad your ok
 
OP
OP
Gamecock

Gamecock

Hey Y'all, Watch This!
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Glad you too are safe. Now what color is yours?
It's a 2005, so it was the dark red color, but "now" it has many splotches of brown due to the deer crap all over the front end. I forgot that little detail earlier, but apparently this deer lost control of it's bodily functions in the last moment before it's death. I'm afraid my riding pants had some collision "souvenirs" as well (from the deer, not me)! :)

As an avid deer hunter, the other thing I've taken from this is that I don't ever intend to let another hunting season pass without using up all of my antlerless deer tags. I've passed on a lot of late-season does in the past while waiting for a trophy buck and ended up with un-used tags. I don't think that will happen any more. I'll give meat to everyone in the neighborhood if I have to, but I will do my small part to make the roads safer.
 

the Ferret

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Wow amazing you kept it up at that speed. Dang forest rats are a menace. With regard to insurance all I will say is don't let them begin repairs until they do a complete estimate including tearing it apart if necessary, and that I hate insurance companies!
 

Mark

Gotta make tracks
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Good to see you posting!

Sorry to hear about the bike; but, glad you're only bruised too.

Let us know how the Ins adjustment goes...
 
Joined
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Very happy to hear you're okay! Get well soon and hopfully your insurance company will help quickly. If they hesitate remind them we are all listening!

Growing up in Montana, deer and how to avoid them, was a normal topic of discussion. I remember the elder ranchers rule was not to change engine rpm or do anything that would spook the animal as you passed by it. I have followed this rule all my life and have not found it to be a bad one. I never hit a deer while on my bike but spent nights trying to hold my throtle steady as I rode by their eyes glowing on the edge of the road. The deer I hit was while in my blazer, and similar to your experiance, I never saw it until it was a brown blur launching itself into my path. I always tried to train myself to remember not to swerve or brake. Now that I have an ABS bike I'm trying to train myself to remember to brake but the disipline to stay straight as an arrow is a sound one. If you swerve and impact anything you are going sideways, there is no doubt. I have seen mule deer jump a 9' fence up a 3/1 grade. In the seconds before impact the animal has the best chance of avoiding you and their instincts are going to try to do that. If you swerve you may hit them as they jump into the path you tried to take. We could argue this point for days and maybe all that really saves us is a higher power. I'm glad you shared your experiance for us to learn from or at least to talk about and mostly that you are able to share your experiance. Oh and whistles? When I was a wrecker driver as a young man I had a couple broken whistles covered in fur to pass around at parties. We considered them in the same class as magnets for your fuel lines :)
 

Mellow

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Things could have been MUCH worse... Coming back from TN this weekend I saw more deer in 2 days than I had the last 2 years. It was crazy.

Glad your injuries were minor.
 

okmurdog

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Glad things weren't worse - very fortunate to stay upright after a hit like that.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Bones

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What a story! Glad you came out so well, all things considered.

Never, ever give up.
 

Bug Dr.

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The first deer I tag this hunting season will be in your honor. The first deer will probably come from the.city limits of my home town. Deer are so bad here we are having an urban hunt. I will probably be hunting from one of my own trees. I see the same 5 deer almost everyday in my neighborhood. Its time for them to go.

Glad you held her up and you are ok. Could've been much worse.
Mike
 

Scooter

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I had almost the identical experience as you seven years ago. I was going between 75-80 mph when I hit one and was fortunate that I didn't see that bugger before I hit him as I likely might have swerved to try to avoid him. It was late at night. In this situation speed and 1000 lbs of mass is your friend. I was lucky in that I did not go down and the only injury I had was a deep bruise in my left shin which was protected by a new pair of boots that I had recently picked up. I suspect that if I had been wearing an ordinary pair of shoes that I would have probably had a broken leg out of it. Your knee likely hit the fairing since the motorcycle slowed some amount right at impact but your body did not. I vagely recall running into my tank bag (the large Honda version built for the ST) during my impact.

I have pictures if you're interested. They did end up totaling my bike even though at the time I didn't think there was that much damage. Turns out that plastic is expensive...
 

SupraSabre

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Sorry to see that you hit a Forest Rat, sorry that the bike is probably going to be totaled, but GLAD you came out of it with just minor stuff!

Two hits in the same week, two too many! Be on the watch out there folks, but if you do need to take one out, do like Gamecock, don't let them take you out and stay on two wheels!
 
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