So there i was, driving to work this morning when out of no where!!!

[Chad J]

First off I'll start with a little history. I live in Ephraim and work in Provo which is approx 67 miles apart. it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there one way. I've been driving this for the last month, so theres no real suprises on this route. Or so i thought......

Visualize this: At 6:00 this morning still dark no moon. 23 degrees windows a little frosty and foggy but just on the outer edges of the window, still a good field of view. Then about 2 1/2 - 3 miles north of town on highway 89 I finally set the cruise control at 65, the speed limit for this area. now i've seen critters on this stretch before in the morning, ranging from small house cats to deer. a couple mornings ago I seen some elk, and thought that they were pretty low, of course we have had a real odd winter this year, theres been snow but not like other years and its been real dry.
Well this morning as I was getting to cruising speed the windows started to fog up, so I turned on the defrosters like normal. That helped still a trace around the outside edges but fairly good. a couple of cars pass by on the opposite side of the road, so my low beams were on.

I noticed somthing in my peripheal field of view that looked like white butted critters, so I looked and sure enough there was elk. My first insinct was to slow down so as i turned my head back, this being 1/4 second, 1/2 second maybe, there she was crossing the road from left to right just trying to get back with her herd. She was maybe a foot off from my bumper just passed center, I all ready had both hands on the wheel and then the impact. I didn't have time to apply the brakes before we collided. So a full grown cow elk and my jeep wrangler at 65 mph. Now i've never been in any kind of wreck, the last time I was pulled over for speeding was because i had to pee somthing fierce. before that it was 19 years. When people say that during a catastrophic event that time slows down, Yes, Yes it does, I can say first hand that happened I watched as we hit I listened to the impact on the wheel well, seen out the corner of my eye the wheel well flare flying off. and as both air bags deployed smelling the gas of what ever they use to inflate them. the feel of the tires rumbling for a brief moment as i was not so much as applying the brakes, but more like fred flintstone style of applying brakes, and the death grip of both hand and arms on to the steering wheel. I never really used seat belts in my younger days, then my dad and younger brother was in an accident and thats what saved them. so for the last 10 years or so I wear them no matter where I go or how far. I have never need them and this time I'm glad I did, the air bags did deploy but I never came close to them. I have a small burn on my left wrist from the gas and I feel like I pinched somthing behind my shoulder blade but nothing that I haven't had before.

theres no skid marks that I could see, that poor elk took me and the jeep from 65 down to nothing in 40...50....60...feet i'm guessing at this point, but it didn't feel very far as I went back to find my wheel well flare. I could of sworn that I did the fred flintstone, or maybe thats what I wanted to do, but didn't get around to it.


The one thing that saved the jeep was the after market front bumper from warn. If it wasn't for that, that poor jeep proabably would have been totalled. but instead i acually drove home, there was some anti freeze leaking but it never over heated.

My sweetie and I went back during daylight and she was a grown cow elk. I took some photos after we got back and more specificly of the bumper. the bar that is in the grill was a kind of brush guard. Thats what took the full brunt force of the impact. you can see that it sheered the mounting plates. the wheel flare is gone, and there is some damage on the front quarter panel.

I already wrote to warn thanking them and telling of how well there product protected me and my jeep.

Now my poor jeep is in an auto body shop awaitng assessment, hopefully hear from them tomorrow.
Thanks for for reading. Chad J

[jimmy seale]

GOD was with YOU!!!i used to work in co/utah and often wondered why most don't have big bumpers..here in tx, you can't get by without one,and we have lot's of smaller deer.i had a incident like that back in 04,down around san antonio mtn. i cam over a little rise and she was on the center line with her but to me and what do you know...when i was about to pass she turned her head to the right and got my windshield,dent under the 1/2 cab window..but....a piece of her hide was caught on the molding around the rear wheel well! so i left it there as a badge,lol. but any way....i didn't get sleepy again till i got to roswell nm,and through elk country...

[WmHorus]

Coulda asked to save the meat from the elk....or had it donated to the local homeless group, they love getting 'large' donations. But yea living in Elk country myself i always drive slow in ccertain spots where I know the regularly cross. Same goes for my Blacktail family that lives around the property... I am glad yer alright but ya they can do lots of damage.

[Loneforge]

You my friend are a lucky man. Good thing you were up high in a Jeep and not on the ground in some little foreign car. This story would probably read a little differently. Glad you're okay! Cheers from New Brunswick Canada.

[Randy]

Now you know why that bar in the front is sometimes called a cow catcher. Like on the old trains. Thank god you were okay.

[JNewman]

Good to hear you are OK. Many years ago my wife and I were on Holidays in Alberta, she was driving and I was just nodding off. Suddenly I was slammed into the seatbelt and just before I said something I looked out the front window and all I saw were legs. She had stopped about 10'-20' from 3 elk on the road out in the middle of nowhere. We were in a Ford Festiva which would have just taken the legs off and deposited the elk bodies right on top of us.

[ThomasPowers]

Might look into going one size sturdier on the aftermarket bumper; sounds like that piece of road may make it a good investment.

Loneforge, last deer we hit my wife took out with a Toyota corolla station wagon. Killed the deer, broke one headlight and pushed the hood askew a bit. we drove it for another 8 years with only replacing the head light.

I'd like a big roo guard on my little truck as we are in an open range county. People do not have to fence their livestock *in*. You have to fence them *out*! Now the interstate has a pretty good fence and all the exit ramps have cattle guards but you do sometimes see deer, elk or cattle stray across.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Unfortunately if you toss tha carcass in your vehicle you can get popped for poaching. I have seen around 12 deer this winter on the side of the road just down the way from where I work in LaVerkin UT. It pains me to see that meat going to waste, although they are usually gone by the time I head home. Saw a DNR officer collecting one , one morning. Another thing is that a lot of facilities cannot accept non USDA certified meat, it has to have the blue stamp on it.

[HWHII]

Glad your ok! Lucky she did not come up over the hood and into the windshield like alot of moose do.

[njanvilman]

In NJ, you are allowed to keep any road kill deer that you kill. Not that many people do. Almost everyone I know has hit or came real close to hitting a deer in the last few years. My wife and I have both taken out deer. I had one big doe run into the side of my car last fall. More deer are killed by cars than hunters here. They have become a real pest, commonly refered to as long legged rats.

[Drewed]

Up north here, we call them deer barshers. Knowing warn, they will do you right with the bumper. Perhaps they may ask you for the photos to see how they could improve it. I'd go with a full welded one next time, rather than a bolt on, but thats me!

[Willis]

Glad your ok. Around here-N. Florida-all we have to watch out for are small whitetails, pigs and the occasional bear or alligator. I can only imagine what an elk would have done to our VW beetle.

[Bentiron1946]

Sure glad it was a cow instead of a bull with a rack, otherwise it could have done more damage to the radiator. God be prasied that you were not damaged.

[Ferrous Beuler]

You had your guardian angel riding with you that day! Man that could have been an awful lot worse than it was. I've hit a lot of deer over the years but never a "cow on stilts". You are lucky to still be among the living.

I live in an area with a lot of deer and seeing them on the side of the road dead from being hit is an everyday thing. I have hit probably around two dozen and have avoided hundreds over the years.
Most of my deer hits happened at night or just before sunrise. Most were running from right to left and those were the ones I wound up hitting because you don't see them coming until the last split second and then WHAM! With a lot of deer around you develop a keen sense for spotting them and come to learn which areas to expect seeing them but it can happen anywhere, anytime. Deer can cover a lot of ground very quickly when they are running and the ones I hit coming from the right side got so close without me seeing them due to the blind spot created by the passenger side windshield pillar and side view mirror.

I hope you bought some lottery tickets that day! Whew!

[Chad J]

Thanks for the replies everybody, and no I didn't buy any lotto tickets should of I guess.

[OddDuck]

Up around here the problem is moose. I've seen the results of a few head-ons, one was a full sized Chevy pickup that hit one head on at about 70, it took off everything right up to the firewall, including most of the extraneous appendages around the engine like wires, pipes, etc. All that was left was the block and frame. Of course, there was ex-moose spattered everywhere on it. Like Ferrous said, "cow on stilts", and I think that moose are on the whole larger than elk, although the end result would probably be the same. Usually whoever hits one, they take out the legs and it lands on the roof of the car, very much bad. And, to top it off, the durn things are nearly invisible until you are right up on 'em. I've never hit one, but I've had a few rectum-clenching near misses.
Thank God you are okay, and buy another of those brush guards. Seems like a cheap price for a little added armor.

[Chad J]

Having the jeep lifted 3" and that bumper is what saved it. Elk are on the tall side but moose..... that is one of the oddest creatures, looks like hot dog bun with four tooth picks hanging out the bottom. The insurance company said that they would pick up the cost of the bumper, which suprised me I thought with an after market product they would'nt but they are! I was pondering on a strap attached to the front of the brush guard, cattle catcher, elk slayer..... or what ever you want to call it, extending down to the bumper and bolt on. Figured that would give a little more support for any backwards pressure. Should'nt hurt anyway. Every morning since I keep seeing things that are not there, like my mind is playing tricks on me. Poor drivers behind me probably think i'm crazy. Hopefully the Jeep will be back somtime aound thursday.

[Jeddly]

Its a good thing you're ok. I've seen plenty of collisions up here in AK. Most times they're glancing blows, and only a little corner damage. The analogy of hot dog with toothpick legs is pretty accurate. I've also seen the critters (moose) in the front seat before with nothing but their toes poking out of the windshield. As you can imagine, most of those are fatalities.

As for the Jeep, it looks like an easy fix. I'm a big fan of bolt on parts on a bumper. I like to think of them as adding to the crumple effect. Its way easier to replace a damaged bumper, than to replace a damaged frame.

[macbruce]

Unfortunately if you toss tha carcass in your vehicle you can get popped for poaching.

In Colorado this is legal, you must report it to the DOW and If you're a hunter you cannot ''hunt''.....lol, that species for that year again.
I always slow way down when deer,elk are near the roadway. Generally the ignoramuses behind me get tee'd off and honk or try to pass.....They'll find out the hard way...... ;)