Hello all, I hope this thread reaches all my fellow truck driver brethren in good health at home with their families and hope everyone has a good turkey day. On to the story...
November 22nd, aprox. 22:20
So I just deliver some insulation to a Home Depot in Rhinelander, WI and I'm crusin' along at 55MPH southbound on WI hwy 17, 2-lane undivided highway and all of the sudden, literally in less than a blink of an eye a doe just pops out of the right hand ditch, all I see is her head and she's headed for my grill. I immediately look at the oncoming lane and see a light silverish-colored minivan about 1/8 of a mile coming towards me... I brace for impact.
BANG she's toast. It happened so fast!! I put my 4-ways on and put up a orange triangle and send an accident macro. I get a reply message asking me to call in but I can't even get an analog roaming tower (sprint sux :P ) I inspect the damage to make sure no coolant is leaking, inspect my steer tire and air dryer and make sure I can hold air pressure. I also had to pull off the top tire cover and toss it on the top bunk (I knew having a condo would come in handy someday!)
and head to Wal-Mart in Merrill, WI to take my 10 hr break.
I just wanted to share my story with you all, it happened just an hour ago and I'm a little shaken up. I'm also pretty disapointed in myself. In my short time driving a truck I've had 1 speeding ticket and now this.
When I drove for roehl I did alot of Wisconsin and I knew the deer situation, my evo 1 trainer told me if you see 1 deer there's almost always more! I know if I had been going 65MPH there would have been alot more damage.
Last week another Crete driver and I were going through Montana and we were on hwy 59 southbound to get to US-212 and I've never in my life seen more deer at one time (I grew up in Iowa might I mention) there had to be literally 300-400 of them! Some were just chillin' on the road. And I didn't hit one...
Anyways, I felt I made the right decision, if I swerved to the right = ditch, wrecker bill, bad headache, lots of paperwork. unemployment. To the left = I would've been heading towards the minivan and who knows what would've happened? When I wake up tomorrow I'll fire up the digital camera and post pix if I have time.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to some of you replying to tell me how stupid I am. Just know that the feeling is mutual.