Deer plunges through windshield after falling from highway overpass, NJ police say
A deer crash-landed in a driver’s lap after falling from a New Jersey overpass, police said.
It happened at about 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, as a driver was heading south on Route 21 in Clifton, according to the city’s police department.
At some point, a deer “jumped or fell” from the Route 3 overpass onto the highway below and plunged through the car’s windshield, police said. The impact caused the driver to hit a concrete barrier before slamming into another car.
Photos shared by police showed a mess of broken glass, a gaping hole in the windshield and the deer laying lifeless on the floorboard.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had anything quite like this,” Clifton police spokesperson Lt. Robert Bracken told the Bergen Record.
Fellow driver Jasper Cordero stopped to help and said it was several minutes before he realized what happened, WNBC reported.
“We started helping him wipe off, call the police,” Cordero told the station. “And when we backed my vehicle away and actually finally opened the door, a full-on deer was sitting underneath his steering wheel shaft.”
The driver, who wasn’t named, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, police said.
The deer didn’t survive.
An estimated 1 to 2 million deer-vehicle collisions are reported in the U.S. every year, the U.S. Forest Service reported in 2014. These crashes result in an average 2,600 injuries and 200 deaths.
Wildlife experts say the fall months, when deer are migrating, are peak time for wildlife-related crashes — a third of which occur on rural roads.
“Out of nowhere ... it was literally, boom, there,” Cordero told WNBC, recalling the freak accident. “I feel really bad for that guy. I can only imagine what a traumatic experience it is.”
Clifton is about 10 miles north of downtown Newark.
This story was originally published September 29, 2023 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Deer plunges through windshield after falling from highway overpass, NJ police say."