NJ deer are no joke — my close call on 195 (Opinion)

To the tune of “I fought the law" ... A deer fought my car and my car won.

Hitting a deer has always been a fear of mine, and it’s crazy that it happened to me just a week after Doyle and I were discussing deer collision stories on air. But I guess there’s no good time for it to happen.

If you missed us talking about that, followed by my embarrassing guess that 25,000 human deaths have occurred from deer incidents in NJ since 2011, you can hear that around the 26 minute mark below. (FYI, the actual answer is 19 deaths… which I maintain seems low). As off-base as that guess was, for the record, THAT’S how sure I was that this was something to be concerned about.

Driving home on Friday, I was still riding the high of a particularly silly game of Jersey Pyramid (you can hear that below). I was in the left lane of Route 195 and saw a deer running from the right side of the road to the left, a few car lengths ahead of me. This caught my attention, so I kept an eye on the right side of the road to see if any of the deer’s friends would follow. Much to my surprise, a deer suddenly sprinted from the left right into my car!

I heard a loud *BAM* on the driver’s side of the car. Thankfully no glass shattered. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the already still body of a deer flying toward another car, then into the median. I pulled over to the side of the road, shaking but otherwise fine.

My car, however, was not as fine. I’ve heard from fellow New Jerseyans how bad deer collisions can be (again, check out the above D&D: On Demand episode for the story of how a guy did battle with a deer and broke. every. bone. in. his. face!) so I’m really counting my blessings on this one, but my car didn’t come out of this unscathed.

Check out what this deer did to the front left of my car.

R.I.P. door handle. Gone, but not forgotten.

Yes, that IS deer fur lodged in my car… yuck!

This right here is the culprit of this whole affair.

I would say “Rest In Peace” but this guy was anything BUT peaceful in my experience. I mean, seriously, HE ran into ME!

Now I’d like to take a moment to shout out the people who helped me out throughout this whole ordeal.

THANK YOU to Deminski who was on the phone with me when this happened. He made sure I was OK and advised me to call the cops, and more importantly my dad.

THANK YOU to my dad, who was out to dinner with my mom when I called him… so I definitely ruined that date night…. Sorry!

THANK YOU to Trevor, the guy who witnessed the whole thing and pulled over with me to make sure I wasn’t hurt. He gave me the “calming” words I needed to hear in that moment: “your car is pretty F***ED.”

It was, Trevor. It was f***ed.

THANK YOU to Daniel, an EMT who was more like the MVP. He pulled over to make sure I was OK, checked out the car, and talked me through what to do and how insurance would work. He was also super helpful in making sure I was calm until the state trooper arrived.

And of course THANK YOU to Trooper Ortin, who was the one who arrived on scene to check out the incident.

The amount of deer near the roads seems crazy high this year. Some speculate that it’s a result of COVID: fewer cars were on the road in 2020, leading to fewer deer getting hit and their rutting season to thrive. To me, this theory makes total sense. We’re about to enter the most dangerous time of year for deer accidents, so keep an eye out and stay safe, New Jersey!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.