The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

For the third time in about a year, a deer saunters out about 50 - 100m ahead of me on the main chesterfiled avenue road in the phoenix park....Thats the main 4.5km long straight road through the park. I haven;t seen the deer(s) since about July or August.. when there were flocks of 100+ very young calfs... few adults to be seen back in summer. Then they disappeared just as they were starting to sprout antlers. This guy this morning (630am) looks at my approaching headlights then walks across the road cool as you like. delighted with himself. Then I saw 3 or 4 lads with him on the side of the road looking at me go by. when one runs out you need to stop and crawl past, even if he is gone by already cause they are never alone. and when one runs out, usually 3 or 4 are following him. The best I ever saw was coming home from town at 1am. It was pitch black in the park, then some lad up ahead stopped and put his hazards on. Then I see about 30 or 40 deer cross the main road in the park in SINGLE file, cool as you like. Just had to sit there and wait. them lads would ruin your car though. must be 300kg each at least. I never exceed the stated 50km an hour in the park anymore. Used to drive quick enough on the empty mornings when I started, but not anymore. you get people who get really annoyed your doing 50 - 60kph and sit up your back bumper, then over take and accelerate up to about 120kph. I imagine it must of happened a few times that someone has mowed into a deer. those deer don't even have insurance.

Ah yes - the deers.. Not only will a collision at speed ruin your car - it could very well cause you some serious harm as well..

If a deer is of proper size most cars simply clip the legs - and send the creature hurtling over the bonnet towards the windscreen. If enough force is applied the deer will go through and meet with your face!

yeah. I've seen picks of that. they are fairly top heavy the old deers. Especailly if you hit one in an FTO. He may even go right over the car the front is so low. seriously put your car out of shape though.

from an Office of Public Works report...

Deer Accidents
Accidents along straight sections throughout the Phoenix Park commonly involved deer, and
few deer accidents seem to occur at junctions. Likely contributory factors are lack of
awareness of drivers to the presence of deer, poor visibility during hours of darkness leading to
poor advance warning to motorists of deer. These issues are exacerbated by higher vehicle
speeds and the straight alignment and wide nature of Chesterfield Avenue tends to encourage
higher vehicle speeds. The 85th percentile speed recorded in the eastbound direction was
76kph. Achieving a reduction in vehicle speeds will be crucial in addressing this type of Road
Safety issue.

My sister once hit a donkey, it was on a bad bend and made bits of the car...
No one claimed ownership of the donkey and she had to fork out for repairs herself...

similar thing happened my neighbor, turned out it was their own donkey stray on the road. it ended up on the roof with one hoof through the windscreen