So about a week ago, my friend was coming home from a ride, it was getting dark , he was doing about 60 on his 07 shadow. , a car with the bright blue headlights coming towards him had him looking at the fog line to keep from blinding himself, when the car passed, he looked up again, and only about 20 feet ahead was a doe standing broadside directly in front of him, with no time to react, he hit the doe, knocking it down and running over it. it caught under his bike and he drug it about 15 feet before it broke loose, cutting the deer in half. talk about 9 lives!!!, no real damage to the bike, i think not having time to react probably helped him , had he swerved or braked, he certainly would have lost control. He has avowed never to ride at night again....lol

Scary! Glad he is ok. A deer hit me last year in the morning, you just never know when it will happen.

Way back when, I drove an old 65 chevy van, I was a dumb kid and thought having big tires was cool but it did give me a pretty tall ground clearance. I lived in the country so there were always some sort of animal in the road and I got to where I just knew I could straddle it and everything would be fine. Well one day I driving along at night and a turkey is standing in the middle of the road, so as usual not even thinking I just moved over a little bit to straddle it, OOPS, took that things head clean off without touching a feather on its body. Oh well, better than swerving and hitting a tree in the middle of nowhere.

Glad the rider survived with no injuries. That is one of the lucky ones! Most motorcycle vs deer collisions we hear about don't turn out that well.

When I took the advance rider course they told us if the animal was smaller than than 18" to not attempt to swerve or stop and over 18" to make every attempt to avoid the animal. This was based on lots of statistics estimating the probability of injury.

I have thought about it a lot... usually while riding down long roads in the middle of nowhere. I always think if a deer came out now what would I do. But the problem is in the real situation, everything changes... How much time do you have to react, which way do I swerve, do I already know what is on the right shoulder, is there a car coming the opposite direction, if I lock it up the brakes is there a car behind me that can stop.

I hit a 6 point with my truck and rolled it down the road and did no damage.

But interesting conclusion for a motorcycle. Accelerate, do not brake or swerve.

Will have to think that one out.

When I am out riding I have always practiced avoidance 110% of the time,from the very least of objects.Gravel, rocks, nails, squirrels,coons,possums & all birds, especially turkeys & vultures,every animal in size on up.This includes insects large enough to register.If you have ever been hit at speed by a stinging insect you know why I try to avoid getting nailed by one,the list includes road hazards potholes etc..

The reasoning for me is, practicing avoidance techniques constantly hones my ability to avoid making contact with any sort of obstruction or hazard that may arise in the course of a ride, doing it instinctively w/out thinking it out overly.

In the case made above the crucial decision to make or avoid contact wasn't a factor w/no time to react.,once blinded the rider should have begun slowing immediately & moving towards the shoulder of road where visibility is best & not as obscured by the oncoming headlights,a technique I use a lot while riding at night.
I would never personally advise anyone to run something over or blow thru it by hitting the throttle.Yet in some instances it is unavoidable.