On the night of Friday, 11th August 2017, at about 8pm, I was driving north on Highway 285 in Colorado at 65mph (the posted speed limit) on my way to Boulder, I hit and killed a 500lb elk with my rental car, a Nissan Rogue SUV.
I had stopped earlier to refuel the car and get something to eat in Three Barrel Pizza restaurant in Del Norte, and was continuing on to the Best Western hotel room I had booked in Louisville. Night had fallen and the road was dark, with little in the way of streetlights. A truck driving against me had slightly dazzled me, and I didn't see the animal until right before I hit it. My first reaction was that it was a horse, such was the size of the creature. I genuinely can't remember if I managed to hit the brakes or not, but I think I did. The airbag deployed and deflated immediately. The car came to a complete stop, with the onboard notification system ringing in my ears there was a problem with the engine. The entire incident was over in about three seconds.
My first reaction was "what the hell just happened", closely followed by "are all of my limbs still attached and bending the way they're supposed to" and then "can I drive away from this??". Of course I couldn't, the engine block had taken the majority of the impact and had crumpled to a tangled mess. The windshield had spider-webbed, but not shattered apart from a small hole in the bottom corner on the passenger side which left tiny shards of glass in the passenger seat, and my backpack that was resting in the passenger side footwell. Strangely enough, the car stereo was not damaged, and was still streaming a Second Captains podcast episode from my phone, as well as informing me the next directions to take using the phone's GPS.
Satisfied that I hadn't been injured, I got out of the car and tried to flag down some of the traffic that was passing. A pick up truck pulled up in front of the rental car, and another car stopped in front of me, with two guys in their twenties in the front seats. "I've just hit a deer, I'm a tourist here on holidays, and I don't know what to do" I explained. "I think you've to call the police" was their advice. The woman who had been driving the pick up had walked around what remained of my car, and I repeated my explanation to her. She echoed the suggestion of the men in the car - call the police and report the incident. Having stayed in their car, they asked if I was ok, would she help me out, and drove off. She called the local police department, gave an approximate location and told me they'd arrive in about 15 minutes. By this stage I was pretty sure shock had set in, so had put on a hoodie to stay warm, and she asked me to sit in to the cab of her truck to help, and introduced me to her daughter who was traveling home with her. While I was sitting in the driver's seat, she examined the body, and informed me that I had hit an elk, not a deer as I had suspected. A big one.
An off duty policeman and his wife (or girlfriend, I never found out) pulled up in their own car, telling us that they'd had reports of a loose elk on the fields earlier that day and they were looking for him. "I found him, he's over there" I replied. He asked if I was injured, and applied the nerve tests - grip his two index fingers with both hands, then with each hand, then apply downward and upward pressure on his arm with both of my arms, then each arm separately, which I passed. I was able to turn my head without any impediment, so whiplash was ruled out. The only injuries I could find were a minor cut on my right arm, and a dull pain on the right side of the small of my back. He asked if I wanted an ambulance to take me to the hospital to get a complete check up, but honestly, there was no pain. That's not bravado or macho bullshit, I was genuinely free of pain. He told me I was lucky, he'd seen collisions where the animal had run off and the car was relatively undamaged, but the driver had to be taken to hospital.
By this time the local police had arrived, and proceeded to take a statement from me (basically everything above) and informed me that, since the incident had taken place outside of city limits, that the state troopers would need to be called. They called for a tow service to come and take what was left of the car away, which arrived a few minutes after the state troopers. Like the police, there were two of them, but in this case it was a senior officer and a trainee. They took my statement again, but also measurements of the road, estimates of where the impact had occurred, where the car came to rest, changes in direction, and where the body of the elk landed, about fix or six yards back in a ditch on the side of the road. Each party (the city police, the state troopers and the tow company) estimated the size of the animal at 500lbs.
I rang the rental company, and gave them the details of the incident, including the police incident id number. The car itself was covered by insurance, and I was told that if I rang back the following morning I would be issued with a replacement vehicle.
At this stage, all I was concerned about was where I was going to sleep that night (it was approx 10:30pm). The city police had rung around a few local hotels, but were unable to find a room. The state troopers took over and eventually found a room in Alamosa, about a twenty minute drive away. They would also give me a lift to the hotel, which is how I found myself in the back seat of a police charger. Chatting away to the senior officer while his trainee completed his measurements, I asked was I under suspicion in the back seat. Fortunately I was not, civilians are not permitted in the front seat, and had I been under any suspicion, then I'd be in handcuffs, would have had my Miranda rights read to me, and he would not be speaking to me.
On the ride to the hotel, I learned from the trainee that he had spent some time in Argentina, so I informed him that the Argentinian navy was founded by an Irishman, and the iconic Che Guevara poster had been created by an Irish artist and released to the world without copyright.
The next morning, the rental company informed me that a replacement car had been located in Colorado Springs, about a three hour drive away, and I would be compensated for a taxi journey with a receipt. The hotel's reception provided me with a number for a local taxi service, who quoted me a $250 fee to go to Springs (as the driver referred to it). Having no choice, I took the longest and most expensive taxi ride of my life, and set out again for Louisville after collecting a slightly older model of the same car that had been written off some 18 hours earlier.
A few people have asked for photos, and I did consider taking one, but after seeing the wreckage of the engine block, I decided against it. In the darkness, I could see the animal's head in the headlights of the various cars parked around the area, and make out the shadow of its antlers. Google "500lb elk" if you want an estimate of what it looked like.
PS It wasn't a dark desert highway, but I'd been to Standin' On The Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona that morning, so y'know. Eagles.
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