Posted on 04/07/2010 9:01:29 PM PDT by cmj328
FREMONT – As a firefighter and paramedic, Roy Olsen thought he'd seen it all.
That was until the severed head of a pregnant deer crashed through his windshield Tuesday night, leaving him covered in glass and guts.
"The head was sitting in the passenger's seat," the 42-year-old Fremont man said Wednesday.
The bizarre accident happened around 7:30 p.m. when Olsen was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee north on Route 125 in Brentwood. He was on his way to buy dog food at the Epping Walmart when he said he spotted a deer run across the road in front of a truck that was in front of him.
Olsen said he believes that deer made it across the highway, but then, out of nowhere, a head came flying at him. He believes it came from a second deer that was hit by a car traveling south on the highway.
"The next thing I knew, my windshield shattered and I took a direct hit in the face and chest. The head came into the vehicle," said Olsen, a full-time firefighter and paramedic with the Hollis Fire Department.
Andrew Lichtenwalner, 41, of Nottingham, said he struck the deer with his Toyota Corolla. He jammed on his brakes after hitting the deer and saw the deer go airborne.
It's not exactly clear how the deer became decapitated, but Lichtenwalner said it appeared that the head was cut off when the deer struck the side of Olsen's vehicle in the opposite lane, he said.
After he pulled over, Lichtenwalner said he walked over and saw what was left of the deer in the road.
"I said, 'Where's the head?' It was laying in the middle of 125, headless," said Lichtenwalner, who was on his way to Merrimac, Mass., to watch the Red Sox game with a friend. Someone told him the head was in Olsen's vehicle.
Lichtenwalner was shocked when he caught his first glimpse of Olsen covered in the deer's blood.
"It looked like somebody poured a five-gallon bucket of blood over his head," he said.
When it hit the windshield, Olsen said he could feel parts of the deer wrapping around his head. The vehicle looked like something had been "massacred inside of it," he said.
Olsen was dazed after the accident, but he managed to get out of his vehicle as passers-by stopped to help.
He suffered broken bones in his left hand, lacerations from the pieces of glass, and contusions to his chest.
It was difficult to assess the extent of his injuries at first, because his face was covered in deer guts, he said.
Like Lichtenwalner, Olsen's wife, Kelli, was stunned when she arrived a short time later and saw her husband.
"He looked like he came out of a horror movie," she said.
Lichtenwalner escaped injury, but his car was heavily damaged.
Olsen moved to New Hampshire from Florida in 2004 and said he was warned to watch out for deer when he arrived.
This was his first encounter with a deer, and he hopes it's his last.
"I was told by all the paramedics that I'm a lucky man, so I have to believe I'm a lucky man," he said, looking at his left arm in a bandage. "Somebody was looking out for me."
Huh?....what?.....oh......I just assumed she was a passenger.
All the more to buy a small car, more exciting and you may not live so long. Emiting all that awful CO2 And drinking that horrible H2O!!!
Somebody was watching out for you, buddy. :)
In all these cases, I only spent one night in the hospital, total. Three moose died, onr was already dead, one ran off. The last one also ran off(with a red toenail)
That’s quite a record! I’m sure Alaska leads the nation in car/moose collisions by a long shot. I’m glad you survived ‘em all.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...”
But, seriously, it would be a shame not to have the head mounted since she practically willed it to happen.
Same exact accident happened to me about a month ago although the deer was hit by the car in the opposite lane about 30 feet in front of me then launched 10’ feet up into the air somersualting over the top of my car to land behind me in the middle of the road.
Something about Grand Cherokees and animals? My wife hit a turkey @70mph and it wiped out the hood and windshield. Although no one raves about Grand Cherokees, they usually outlast the other brands.
*ducks*
Somebody was looking out for him. Gee, wonder who that could be.
I am amazed SD isn’t in that list : We vacationed there last July (loved it, BTW) and every day, we saw MULTIPLE deer run out on the highway in front of traffic. Here in MO there’s tons of deer, but it can be months if not years between sightings...I guess our deer are smarter than SD deer.:-D
I heard of a six point jumping into a car window while attempting to cross a road in NW Florida several years ago. The male passenger was hurt badly by the hooves and horns of the very angry buck. Neither could get away from the other.
OUCH!
You really have to try to drive carefully but sometimes it doesn’t matter. If they decide to cross the highway there is nothing you can do but hope for the best.
Back in the 50s, several of us were returning to college in the wee hours of the morning when we topped a hill, only to find the road full of horses. Our driver dodged all but one, which reared up -- and we hit its hind legs with the driver's side of the car. Its body slammed down onto the hood, its chest hit the windshield, and its head smashed the roof down on the driver's head. Then it flipped over the car and somersaulted onto the road behind us.
Our driver managed to maintain control and, with a smashed left headlight, managed to bring the car to a safe stop on the right shoulder.
The driver of the car following us said that his headlights suddenly illuminated a horse tumbling through the air, so he evaded it by veering off on the opposite (left) side of the road.
Following him was a pair of motorcyclists riding side-by side. They avoided disaster when one went left and the other veered right to avoid the carcass in the road.
~~~~~~~~~~
We noticed an oncoming car that had stopped a hundred yards or more away, and then slowly crept up to our location. The driver (who, apparently had had a few drinks) said,
"Damndest thing I ever saw: One car come over the hill, one headlight went out and it pulled off on the other side of the road. Then another car come over the hill, and it suddenly headed off into the ditch on my side of the road.But, when that third car come over the hill and half went one way and half went the other, I decided it was time for me to stop!"
One of my sons was driving the interstate with another employee. He was driving and had his window open, the passenger window was closed...A duck flew into the cab of the truck and smashed against the passenger window...lucky there was no accident as it scared them when something flew into the truck....
A friend of mine hit a black Angus bull the same way. Crushed her face and she was laid up for about 6 months recovering.
Now, that would hurt!
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