A West Kelowna woman wants drivers to be more considerate to deer after she says she saw a chain-reaction crash Thursday morning that was caused by an aggressive driver.
Cori Derickson says she was driving northbound on Highway 97 in West Kelowna, when she slowed down near Boucherie Road to let a deer that had jumped out on the road, cross.
But she says the deer ran down the highway instead after a male driver in the lane beside her sped up towards the deer, honking.
“He comes by me and he starts honking his horn at the deer and just driving faster, so the deer started running down the highway,” she says “Then it finally darted out and of course then somebody hit the deer on the other side of the road.”
The deer went over the roof of the car and ran away but Derickson says the car that hit the deer ended up getting rear-ended by another car.
She believes the accident could have been avoided if the driver beside her hadn’t made the deer more frantic.
“There’s a lot of deer that go up the mountain and crossing around there, unfortunately, but he didn’t have to honk at it and make it run down the highway. Instead he could have, you know, stopped and let it run through.”
Kelowna RCMP Corporal Jesse O’Donaghey says drivers should slow down when encountering wildlife, buts adds that the actions of animals are very unpredictable.
“RCMP recommend that drivers who encounter wildlife, reduce their speeds, be prepared to take evasive action and or stop suddenly in a safe and controlled manner,” he says.