On our way back from Christianburg, Amy dropped me by Turman-Yeatts to pick up my Wrangler and then followed me home. As we topped the hill on Harvestwood near Sandy Flats Road a deer jumped out in front of my car. I braked to miss it as he bounded into the field on the other side.
“Thank goodness,†I thought. Too many collisions with deer in this county, especially at night. When I reached Harvestwood, I noticed Amy’s Liberty was no long following so I turned around and headed back.
The Liberty was stopped and she stood in the road, crying.
“The deer hit me,†she said between sobs.
“You mean you hit the deer with your car?â€
“No. The deer hit my car.â€
After crossing the road in front of my car, the deer wheeled around and headed back across Harvestwood, running head on into the driver’s side door of the Liberty, leaving a dent just above the moulding.
“Did I kill it?â€
I didn’t find any blood or deer alongside the road. We headed home.
Our insurance agent tells us we were lucky. Collisions with deer are common in Floyd County and the rest of Virginia. Local musician Bernie Coveney totaled his car when he hit a deer on New Year’s Eve.
When Amy’s car gets out of the body shop I’m going to put a deer decal on the door. Four more and she’s an ace.
You are lucky, as was my husband. He hit a deer late at night on an interstate outside of Chattanooga. If the hood of his car had been slanted, he and his friend would have been badly injured or dead. They were not injured, and the car was not totaled, but the repair was very expensive. Not only was the hood tented but the computer had to be replaced. It became a very expensive business trip with rentals, towing and the repairs. That was probably ten years ago but he still remembers it vividly. Now, we see deer in the suburbs and on the main thouroughfares of Atlanta.
What! You’re getting it fixed? In Floyd, I thought a deer dent was a major status symbol. I got mine.