Motorcycles and Deer

Wild deer are found all over North America, in large numbers, their population is increasing, and they have habits and instincts that put them on collision courses with motor vehicles.

Motorcyclists are especially vulnerable to serious injury in a deer collision. In 2002 only two percent of the cars and 1.3 percent of the utility trucks crashing into deer resulted in serious human injury or a fatality, but 75 percent of the motorcycle-deer crashes resulted in serious injury or death to the cyclist. The typical deer strike occurs with the animal suddenly leaping in front of the vehicle, often at night. The vehicle slams into the deer, with sickening consequences. What's startling is the amount of damage even a small deer can do to a speeding vehicle. If the motorist happens to be a motorcyclist, the odds are high that both deer and biker will be seriously injured. What's so insidious about motorcycle/deer collisions is the unpredictability…Read full article: Deer, Oh Dear! By David L. Hough

There have been several tragic deer-motorcyclist accidents recently-

Lawrence Grodsky, Top American expert on motorcycle safety and well known to thousands of motorcyclists for his monthly magazine column on safety and his on-the-road training courses, died April 8 2006 when his motorcycle collided with a deer. He was 55.

“Deer: Unbelievable as this may sound, nearly one out of every 200 vehicles in the United States will collide with a deer this year! In 2005 they roam the neighborhood the way dogs did in the days before leash laws. Unlike inattentive drivers, who invade our space from well-known coordinates, deer explode at full gallop out of anything vaguely green. It's a game of chance, but the odds are markedly better for those who manage their speed and who understand where and when deer are most active.”

Lawrence Grodsky

Motorcycle safety expert Lawrence Grodsky killed in collision with deer

Lawrence Grodsky uses chalk and the concrete floor of a picnic shelter to illustrate a point during a lunch break on one of his tours. Every moment was a potential teaching opportunity.

Obituary: Lawrence Grodsky / Top American expert on motorcycle safety

July 8, 1950 - April 8, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
By Sally Kalson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lawrence Grodsky, a nationally known motorcycle safety expert and author who taught thousands of riders to handle themselves on the roads, died Saturday on his bike in Fort Stockton, Texas, after being hit by a deer. "Larry was the most talented, experienced and competent motorcyclist in the country, but this is the one thing he knew he couldn't do anything about," said his girlfriend, Maryann Puglisi. "Just a few weeks ago he said to me, 'That's how I'm going to go, it's going to be a deer.' He could deal with all the idiot drivers, but at night when a deer jumps in your path, that's it and he knew that." Mr. Grodsky gave private and group lessons all over the country through his Pittsburgh-based company, Stayin' Safe Motorcycle Training. He also led trips in other parts of the world. In 1988 be began writing the Stayin' Safe column for Rider magazine, a monthly publication based in Ventura, Calif. "Larry made motorcycle safety interesting every month for 18 years," said managing editor Donya Carlson. "He had quite a loyal following. We're all still in shock." Mr. Grodsky also wrote travel pieces for the magazine. He was doing one at the time of his death His love of motorcycles led him to become an early instructor with the fledgling Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Foundation, running a training site in Monroeville. "We viewed him as the master," said Tony Capriotti of Verona, who trained as an instructor with Mr. Grodsky in 1993 "Nobody rode with him without a helmet and all the other proper safety equipment," said his sister. "His training courses were the gold standard. There are hundreds of people out there who say they owe their lives to him." "He died doing what he loved, but he loved living, too," said his sister. "He'd be happy not to have a sick old age, but he had a lot of years of fun still ahead of him."

 

Neeson's Wife is so deer to him...

Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson feared he may never walk again after he collided his Harley-Davidson bike with a deer in Connecticut. A truck driver discovered the Irish actor lying by the road.

He suffered multiple injuries including a broken pelvis, broken heel and a multitude of abrasions when his motorcycle went out of control after colliding with a deer on a country road near his home. "At one point the deer was over my handle bars and I was trying to keep balanced." Neeson spent a week in the hospital recovering from his near-death crash, then months of gruelling physiotherapy. It was a horrific ordeal, and the actor remembers it clearly. "I remember being on my '89 Springer Softail, an hour outside New York City, on a country road, the 11th of July, about 12 noon and was carrying my pannier bags, a bran muffin and a New York Times. And two bones for the pup. I had all this heavy gear on and in a blink of an eye a deer came out and started to climb over the motorbike. At one point I've got the handlebars and she's hanging over this thing and her legs are caught in the spokes of the wheel and I'm trying to get balanced. My instinct is to get off the road even though there's no traffic. I veer off and what I thought was solid is an embankment and I go down and hit a tree. I wasn't unconscious; as I banged up against the tree, I had my helmet on, which saved my life, and the deer slithered into this ditch. I was saved by this young tree." It might have been a life and death moment, for the 50-year old actor adds, "my wife told me that I'm still the same, grumpy old bastard that I ever was", he laughingly adds. Read article