The Bookless Club: What are your 'deer in the headlights' encounters?

I’m still cringing.

To say they were in harm’s way is an understatement. The sight summoned the baby carriage on the stairs scene from Sergei Eisenstein’s famous 1925 film, Battleship Potemkin. That scene, reprised in Brian De Palma’s 1987 film, The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, showed an infant in a buggy careening down granite steps in the midst of mayhem.

“Someone’s got to do something,” you think as you pass by. And you do pass by, because what are you going to do, really? Make it worse? Entirely possible.

Four deer — specifically, four Columbian black-tailed deer, the native, compact subspecies of the mule deer that inhabit Vancouver Island — were grazing on the wrong side of the road. Each one, a Disney dream of tawny innocence. They had been lured by the verdant strip of grass on a section of waterfront park at Qualicum Beach. At some point, they would have to navigate the two-lane roadway to cross back over to a wooded slope. A massive Peterbilt truck rumbled by us, going the opposite direction. Swerving, let alone stopping, weren’t options for him.

Each year in B.C. there are about 12,500 wildlife collisions. The more than 9,400 deer/vehicle collisions account for 80 per cent of those accidents. To say these events end badly for the deer is no surprise, but such crashes also result in close to 900 human injuries each year, and an average of four fatalities. The cost to the provincial government for animal-related claims is more than $41 million. Annually. That’s right: annually.

Many years ago, driving home one night, an uncle of mine broadsided a moose. He may as well have run right into a concrete wall for all the damage it did. You see, when you hit a moose, its heavy body tends to launch itself directly onto the hood and through the windshield. A moose can weigh 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms). Oftentimes, two lives are lost in these types of collisions. My uncle spent weeks in a hospital following the accident. His car was a write-off.

The shame of it is that it all seems so unnecessary. The twitching body of a hapless doe is a grim sight to see, let alone the human injuries. When I used to go to Montana several times each season, I’d honk my horn on the vast stretches of highway I had to cover. I’d honk and flash my lights, thinking I was giving wildlife warning of my approach. I would wonder exactly how I’d respond if suddenly confronted with the proverbial “deer in the headlights”. Not all wildlife accidents are consequent to collisions — sometimes the driver smashes into something other than the creature. The outcome can be just as bad for the car and its occupants.

I used to wish that all the rental cars in rural areas came with a deer whistle. A deer whistle is an inexpensive, wind-activated, ultrasonic whistle that attaches to the underside of a car. The idea is that your car generates a warning signal for wildlife. Unfortunately, there is no statistical evidence that these devices work. To begin with, wildlife may not react as hoped upon hearing the warning signal. How far does the sound carry? Is it enough lead time to allow the driver to brake in advance of a collision? What if there is noise from wind or a nearby river? The only thing authorities advise is to drive slower and with extreme caution at dusk and dawn, to always expect deer to be in clusters, and to brake, rather than swerve, if there’s wildlife on the road in front of you.

Given recent advances in science, you would think we’d have come up with a device to address this costly and gruesome problem. I bet Mr. Dyson could wrangle up a solution if he put his mind to it.

Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

Question: What are your ‘deer in the headlights’ encounters?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

Question: Do you use the library?

• I was very lucky to grow up with the huge Carnegie Library (and museum, and concert hall) in Andrew Carnegie’s adopted home town of Pittsburgh, across the street from University of Pittsburgh, and close to Carnegie Mellon University. (Carnegie pronounced his name Car NAY gee, as did others from Dunfermline, Scotland.) The cousins I stay with when I visit live a few blocks from the library, and I spend time there and in the stacks. Architecturally, it resembles our Vancouver Carnegie Centre. It’s still my favourite library, and now it has a coffee bar.

Ellie O’Day

• You hit the bull’s eye. What would we do without libraries? I have a farmer friend near a dot on the map called Wrentham, Alberta. They have a perfect little library in a new building. My friend volunteers, and writes a column for it online.

Ken Bryden

• Around 1960, we lived on Seaforth Drive off Rupert Street. Once a month — maybe it was once a week — in the alley behind the gas station at Grandview and Rupert, right by Falaise Park, the BookBus would show up. It was basically a library on wheels. The neighbourhood kids would be so excited. Whenever I drive by that spot now it brings back fond memories.

Willi O’Reilly

• The North Vancouver Library is my second home. I’m there almost every day, where I order books and videos. I bump into friends and discuss and recommend books. I often can’t resist a “Seven Day Read” selection. The staff are very helpful and order books from different libraries.

Sally Day

• I had a library card from the main library on Burrard Street some 50 years ago. In the intervening years, I bought books and never visited the library. When I moved to the Riley Park area a couple of years ago, I applied for a new library card at the Terry Salman branch. Last year, when creating the new library card, it showed an expiry date of Dec. 17, 2052. I told the librarian that I’d be back to renew the card then. I love visiting the library and being seduced by titles and contents therein.

Barry Chen

• I’m amazed that I can reserve and enjoy current magazines, and take out books at the library. All this, and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Colleen Andersen

• Today’s libraries offer a wonderful service through their e-book collections allowing us to browse, borrow, read and return books from the comfort of our own couch. And e-books are a godsend to those of us who increasingly struggle with print size and adequate light for reading. But I regularly take my two young grandsons for real library visits and enjoy their delight in finding new “just right” treasures to enjoy at home.

Wendy Dubois