Quote:
Originally Posted by ApS
Yesterday morning, I came upon a road-killed deer, and this was in a 25-MPH zone. 
Knowing that a deer will cause damage to one's car—or worse—how could anyone not slow down? 
...and this was on a two-lane bridge...!
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Two comments, I hit a deer down in southern Mass. about 15 years ago, I was going 30 mph, the deer jumped in front of my car, I saw it with legs outstretched out of the corner of my eye and attempted to brake, in the time it took my foot to go from the gas pedal halfway to the brake pedal the deer was hit. It was literally a half of a second from the time I saw the deer jumping out of the brush on the side of the road until he was hit and spinning through the air. It stopped my car dead, (Dodge turbo spirit) set off the airbag, and totaled the car. Deer are quick, unpredictable, don't know the rules of the road and don't want to be seen. By all means, if you see one slow down and avoid, but many times, especially when it is dark and you don't have clear views of the side of the road, you can't see them until they are in front of you. The bridge you mention probably had guard rails or other obstructions and the deer jumped in front of what ever hit it.
The second comment is there seems to be the idea that 25 mph is not fast. I beg to differ. An object traveling 25 mph has quite a bit of energy stored that must be dissipated in a collision. Consider the fastest humans can run just about 15 mph. Should one of these people choose to run into a wall at that speed they would at a minimum require hospitalization if not kill themselves. Considering this, you should realize that a deer hit at 25mph would sustain much damage if not death.