Long story short, I swerved to avoid hitting a deer and hit a gaurdrail instead going ~40 mph. Cops gave me a "too fast for conditions" citation even though it is a 45 mph zone, roads were dry and they didnt witness the accident. I dont want to hear any "you should've just hit the deer" as I have heard it enough the last few days and swerving was a reaction.




Close-ups of the major damage










Getting an estimate on the damage tomorrow.

 

ouch sorry to hear about that, i did something similar to aviod hittig a dog, and i got the same "you shoulda just ran it over" bs from everyone.

 

Dang sorry to hear about that. Glad your ok.

 

Ohh man that sucks. Are going to get it fixed?

Screw the police, they just don't understand.

 

damn that blows man. lets see the gaurdrail

 

You don't want to hear it but its the truth.

Too Many ppl do that

 

F'ing cops

 

lol

 

Now I ran a dog over back in high school and everyone told me I shoulda swearved, if I had they woulda told me I shoulda hit it. This is just one of those damned if ya do damned if ya don't deals. Sucks for the damage though, the truck got torn up pretty good.

 

is it totaled?

 

deff need a new crossmember

 

Welp, you will know the correct choice to make next time!! Glad you are ok though, and honestly looking from the cops point of view.. Single car wreck, of course no one would EVER admit to driving to fast, so he just figured that was the reason... Not sayin it's right, but I could see his point of view... How much in damage did you incur?

 

you can buff that right out man...

 

ouch looks close to a write off.... let us know.

 

As of right now I dont know if it will get fixed or if it will be declared totaled. It happened thursday at 11:30 pm, and spent all day making phone calls on friday. On monday I will be getting an estimate.

 

Quoted for truth.

You're lucky you only hit a guard rail rather then rolled your rig, or over corrected into oncoming traffic.

Sorry to see the truck, man.

 

Damn, that hurts bad. Sad to see a fellow DWB off the road. Hope it works out man, if not, buy it back and part it out!

 

Swerving to avoid a sudden object in front of you is a natural reaction that is often unavoidable. There is a certain point where the timing is such that your brain isn't processing what it is, why it is there, what will happen, and what the best course of action is. These aren't even voluntary reactions. Its like flinching when something quickly jumps in front of your face. Luckily, part of that natural reaction knows to swerve right so usually we are only damaging ourselves and not cutting across traffic.

The only time you are going to not take evasive action is when you have enough time to think about it or it happens so fast it is over before you even know you hit something. Its easy to say "you should have just hit it", but I guarantee anyone else driving in the same time and place would also have hit that guard rail.

--edit--
And go to court with that ticket. That is absolute bullcrap and will get tossed in heartbeat. I don't see ANY legal basis for that citation. The only way that would hold any water is if the road conditions warranted slowing down (snow, ice, rain, etc) or if you were exceeding the speed limit by a lot.

 

Sucks about your truck. hopefully they can fix it.

Are you going to contest the ticket? If you do just sat exactly what FireRanger just said to the traffic court judge.

 

I'm sorry that happened man.

 

Man sorry to see that its a sad sight :-(


What does that mean.

 

Too fast for conditions is not a speeding over the speed limit kinda ticket. He was traveling too fast for conditions, because he was out driving his headlights. Technicaly you should be able to stop within he range of what your headlights hit. ie: as soon as your lights light up a street sign slam the brakes and you should be able to stop before youre bumper passes the sign. Sounds like bull right? Well it's true, it's the way it is. When your on a hilly curvey back mountain road, at peak the hill and there is a kid chasing ball just past the crest you will prolly not see him in time to stop at 50-60+mph. Same idea there. Just like if you rearend someone it's your fault 100% evertime. They did not make you follow them so close, the guys who was trying to cut you off didn't make you speed up to stop him. Speed to fast for conditions is a factor in over 95% of accidents in America, even when people are driving under the speed limit.

 

I'm aware of what i means. But hat has nothing to do with this. If an animal or person or whatever runs out in front of you 1/2 a second before you hit it, this has absolutely nothing to do with the distance ahead that your headlights can illuminate. And for that matter, the speed limit is the speed limit day or night and the that is taken into consideration when the engineers set the speed limit. From what he describes, there is NO LEGAL BASIS AT ALL for that citation. I don't know what cop would be stupid enough to waste the court's time with something so pointless.

 

your right if the deer was in the woods. but if was in grass on the shoulder than it does. I agree it blows and he should fight it, but I doubt he'll win