Cars usually hit wild animals on rural roads, but a motorist in California had a deer slam into him just as he was checking his car for signs of an animal collision, the highway patrol said.
Robert Brooks (55) was driving about 45km from San Francisco at dusk on Tuesday when he swerved to miss a deer that leapt into the roadway, said Officer Steve Creel.
Brooks pulled over and was checking his car for damage when a vehicle coming the other way knocked a deer into Brooks.
“It was a one-in-a-million-type situation,” Creel said. “The irony of thinking you struck a deer and then having a deer strike you.”
It turned out that Brooks missed the deer with his car, but by stopping wound up “in the wrong place at the wrong time”, Creel said.
Brooks suffered a broken ankle and was treated at a local hospital, according to the officer. The deer died.
Highway-patrol officers were searching on Thursday for the second driver, who left without stopping. — AFP