What I’m seeing on NJ roads that has me worried for other drivers

I’ll admit that I’m not the most confident driver. For the most part I can hold my own but there are certain factors that really make me white-knuckle it on the roads.

For instance, I’m not entirely confident during a snowstorm, I’m definitely overly cautious when flakes start falling, thankfully I’m much better in the rain.

Then there’s driving near motorcyclists who have decided that it’s okay for them to weave through lanes of traffic. That will fully send me into a mild panic attack.

But what makes me the most nervous while driving is something I’ve seen more frequently in the past few days.

I can’t stand seeing deer on the side of the road

Driving home on Monday I was reminded of how petrified I get when deer start getting more confident when crossing the New Jersey road.

Deer in EJ's neighborhood | photo by EJ

I passed multiple deer on my way home from work on rt 195. While they were simply grazing on the grass on the side of the road, you never know when they’ll leap into moving traffic.

Once I got onto local roads, I had deer walking not only on the side of the roads, but running into the street in front of me.

I was reminded of an incident I had a few years ago where a deer bashed itself into my driver’s side door on 195.

I had seen another deer going from the right side of the road to the left, so I figured I should look over there to see if it had others following it. Then, I was struck from the left by a rogue deer.

The damage done to Kylie Moore's car after a crash on I-195 East (Kylie Moore)

Thankfully it didn’t reach the window, but had that deer been even just three inches higher, I could’ve been severely injured, if not worse.

I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the already dead corpse of the deer flying toward another car, then into the median. I pulled over to the side of the road, shaken but otherwise okay.

Seeing the deer being more confident crossing the street makes me concerned for myself and other drivers as we near their rutting season where they have a real ‘devil may care’ attitude about traffic.

Rutting season starts around Oct. and runs through Dec. so be careful on the Jersey roads!

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.

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