Oh Deer!

Do you ever have those moments where you have a near-miss event and you think of the one or two things you could have done differently and that would have been YOU in the circumstance?

I had that happen to me this morning.

I was on my way home from work in a pretty decent mood (because of how well things went for the first day of the week) and wanted to get home a soon as I could. I take a semi-rural route to and from work instead of the freeway because the scenery is better.

Today, the scenery almost got me.

I was coming up to a part of the road where it went from one lane to two for a bit to let traffic merge and there was a slower car two cars in front of me and an older red VW Jetta directly in front of me who REALLY seemed to be in a hurry. When we got to the second lane, the Jetta went around as fast as they could and zoomed off. I decided I wasn't in that big a hurry so I stayed behind the other car as the two lanes merged back into one.

About 15 seconds later a small herd (about 6 or 8) deer came running as fast as they could across the road in front of us. They were far enough ahead that I didn't feel the need to slow down much, but when the car in front of me got the the crossing point, they slowed waaay down.

I thought they were being a bit too overly cautious now, but realized when they went around the fresh accident scene that a deer had been struck. I didn't know it until they stopped a bit further up, but the red Jetta hit one directly and pulled off to inspect the damage.

I pondered for a moment as I passed by them and decided to turn around in case anyone was hurt. It turned out that they were physically ok, but the car was pretty well totaled. Not only had they hit a deer head on, but a SECOND one broadsided the driver side of the car.

I asked them if they needed me to call for help, but they had already done so and asked if I could give the passenger a ride to work. It turned out that his work was on my way home and I agreed. After giving him a ride he thanked me for stopping and helping and asked my name. I told him, and he told me his name was Moroni.

Interesting. (Not tooo out of the ordinary living in Utah, but still...)

Anyway, I was thinking about it the rest of the way home and came to the conclusion that we really are looked over if we listen to the still, small voice inside. Literally, if I had only made one or maybe two different decisions on my way home, it would have been me in that spot at the wrong time.