I hit a deer a couple of years ago. I was going down a foothill road in the neighborhood of 38-40 mph (not sure that day, but ride there a lot), and these three mule deer scamper out from behind some willow trees on the side of the road. Not much time to react, but I slammed on the brakes and missed the first one, but broad-sided the middle one going 32 mph. I would have missed her, but she sort of hopped down same direction that I was traveling.
I was very lucky, because I hit her while she was in mid-bound and still in the air. My front tire slid under her belly, and most of the bike impact was took place from the top of my forks to my handlebars. The impact turned me sideways, and my I slapped her with the entire right-side of my body. The bike crumpled under us, and we sort of "flew" together for a second or two hip-to-hip and face-to-face (deer breath smells, by the way). Being in the air together really slowed me down a lot, so I only slid like 10 ft when I landed. I'm sure that the deer was hurt rather badly, but she ran away. I walked away with a little bit of road rash, a dire need of a new front-end for my old bicycle, and a healthy fear of stuff running in front of me when riding downhill in the mountains...
Last edited by Pinyon; 11-18-09 at 03:18 PM.