On the same morning we left (see The Road – Part 3), Syl, Pogo (my brother-in-law), Max (my niece) & Shaun (my nephew) as well as my mom and my aunt, also left at grizzly 4 am time to go home, but they took a different route that would take them through Montreal. There was a lot of fog patches in the air and visibility was not always good. They were driving fairly slow, around 50 KM/H.
Out of nowhere, a deer came to play “chicken” with them. Guess who won.
The impact was so severe that the deer flew back across the road as if re-enacting Rudolph’s latest flight. The driver’s side headlights were shredded to pieces, the wheel well ultra broken rubbing on the tire, the driver’s door unable to open. After loud surprised screams AND the driver’s great control of the car, they came to a stop on the side of the highway. I’m told everyone remained fairly calm after the big impact. My niece and nephew went to see the carcass across the road, it looked to be a large female.
A taxi driver stopped to see if they needed help and told the story that this type of accidents now happens frequently as travelers often stop on the side of the road to feed carrots and such to the deer. The animals are now conditioned to not necessarily be scared of the traffic and will approach anyone not going too fast I guess: “Hey, this guy’s only going 50 KM/H, he must have carrots, last one there is a “fag-deer”!
Everyone was shaken up, but ultimately OK. The SUV is in the garage and my sister is now driving a red convertible mustang. There she is playing Hot Mama while Bambi’s lying on the side of the road.