Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I now realize....

I now realize just how lucky we were when we were hit by the deer a few weeks ago...yes, our car was totalled and is STILL being fixed, but at least we didn't have the deer come through the windshield or have the antler come into our mouth! The story below is on the same road, almost in the same spot where we were hit. This guy WAS lucky!
Richard Williford was driving on Route B north of Hallsville when he struck a deer that had leapt from the roadside. The deer totaled the car, and Williford had to pull an antler out of his mouth after pushing the deer back through the windshield. (J. Robinson photo, Columbia Missourian)

"R. Williford headed home for Columbia before dark on Monday in the Dodge Neon he had just bought. Stepping on the gas, the car climbed to 45 mph on the straight stretch of Route B leading south into Hallsville. And then it hit him. A brown blur dropped from the sky - from at least 10 feet up - and instantly Williford was wrestling a snorting mass of horns, fur and blood. A struggling eight-point buck was lying on Williford’s windshield and its antler tips were clattering around in his teeth. "All I knew is I was numb, and I saw blood everywhere. And I just knew that" the antler point "had gone through my throat, and I thought I just hadn’t felt it yet," he said. "It totally freaked me out." But the antler of the offending deer had stopped just short of cutting his throat. "I don’t even know how to explain it to anybody when you realize after impact that you’ve got a horn in your mouth and there’s something alive attached to it," he said. Williford, 43, acted quickly. He slammed on the brakes, pushed his legs up on the dashboard and snapped off a piece of antler with his hands. He then mustered enough strength to push the 180-pound deer out onto the hood. According to Williford’s recollection and police reports, the buck was chased out of the woods by a hunter near Route B and Schooler Road, and the animal leapt from a small hill alongside the road. It landed squarely on Williford’s windshield. "

You can read the whole story here

3 comments:

Nicole said...

YIKES! That is crazy. I don't know what I'd have done! What a lucky guy.

The Malones said...

I can't believe it!! That is amazing... I am so glad you are okay after your "run-in".

jenny said...

holy crap! there are always deer on the road (dead/alive) on my way to and from work. i hope this never happens to me - he was lucky!