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Deer Flips Into The Air After Hitting Kentucky Police Car, Runs Away Uninjured [Video]

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 08:22 PST, Dec 2, 2015

It’s not unusual to see deer in Kentucky. It’s also not unusual for someone to hit a deer in Kentucky. However, it is a bit unusual for a deer to be hit, catapulted into the air, and then run off from the scene with no injuries.

This is exactly what happened over the weekend while Kenton County police officer Officer Pittaluga was driving along Decoursey Pike through Visalia. As can be seen on the dashcam footage, shared by the Kenton County Police Department on their Facebook page, the collision happened abruptly, with the deer hitting the police cruiser and then performing a Triple Axel over the hood. The deer is then seen running off into the bushes without sustaining any apparent injuries.

The police department decided to share the video for training purposes, and to show fellow drivers how to react if they were to encounter a similar situation.

“Over the weekend, Officer Pittaluga encountered a large deer while driving on Decoursey Pike through Visalia. The encounter was less than cordial and ended as abruptly as it began. We think this video is a pretty good training video on how to react when a four-legged furry friend attempts to abruptly cross your path,” the police station wrote.

Even though Officer Pittaluga wasn’t able to avoid hitting the deer, he was able to remain in control of his vehicle and keep the accident from being any worse than it was.

“Officer Pittaluga applied his brakes and steered away from the deer in a controlled manner… Although he didn’t manage to avoid the collision, he did maintain control of his vehicle throughout the entire incident, even when the large (but apparently agile and acrobatically trained) deer was performing a Triple Axel over the hood of his cruiser.”

Thankfully, the deer and the officer were able to walk away from the accident uninjured. However, the police cruiser did suffer some minor damages.

“Our officer was unharmed but the cruiser did sustain some damage. As for the deer, he appeared to brush off the incident before quickly running away into the woods,” the post explained.

Since it’s the holiday season and all, the police department made sure to check in with Santa Claus and make sure they hadn’t hit one of his reindeer.

“We did place a call to Santa just to be sure this deer didn’t belong to him (we would hate to end up on the naughty list). He was quick to point out that he employs reindeer and that, although this deer did appear to fly, it was not a reindeer (we still aren’t clear whether we will be making the nice list or not).”

Deer collisions are a frequent cause of wrecks, especially on Kentucky roadways. In October, Kentucky’s Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a press release urging drivers to pay close attention to their surroundings when they are traveling.

The press release states that more than half of all deer-related accidents in Kentucky occur from October through December due to the “rut,” which is the deer mating cylce. The most deer-related collisions in Kentucky are reported in November.

“Drivers should be aware of deer movements this fall no matter where they are in the state,” said Kyle Sams, deer biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Drive a little slower and try to anticipate what might be coming from different directions.”

[Photo via Twitter]

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