AndrewBlakeThe Isanti County Sheriff’s Department in Minnesota released a video of one of their deputies hitting a deer while driving in excess of 100 mph. (Video below)
The deputy hit the deer on Oct. 21 and police posted photos of the totaled car.
The deputy was responding lights and siren to a man with a gun call in Cambridge.
“The deputy did a great job of just getting on the brakes and keeping it in his lane, even though the hood went into his windshield,” the sheriff’s office posted on its Facebook page.
The sheriff’s department also used the incident to educate drivers on how to handle such a situation.
“It goes to show how dangerous deer strikes can be, but this also shows how important it is to NOT swerve when an animal strike is going to occur,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
“If the deputy swerved he would have rolled and been injured or worse. Staying in a straight line kept the injuries to a minimum when the air bags deployed.”
Facebook reacted to the police posting.
“My college professor once said: If you’re driving down the road and see a deer, don’t swerve,” a Dave LaCombe posted. “It’s better to hit the deer than possibly a tree. If you’re driving down the road and see a moose, hit the tree.”
A Pete Keiner Jr posted in response to the comments from people questioning how fast the deputy was driving to respond to a call of a man with a gun.
“Glad the Deputy is okay,” Keiner wrote.
“As a former Officer, I shake my head at the negative comments about speed. But yet, people complain all the time about how this happened, or that happened, because it took so long for the Officer to arrive.
“People can say how the Deputy should have been driving slower, but after viewing the dash cam, I commend the Deputy for their driving skills. There was plenty of room to respond accordingly, such as the Deputy did.
“I don’t care if they were driving 30 mph, this accident was unavoidable. Thank you to the Deputies for risking their lives every day to come to the rescue for those in need.”
You can see the video below: