Report your car vs. dear, or else

October 23, 2019

Der Editor,

Last Friday my grandson and his girlfriend had made plans to drive up to Loring to see gramma Dixie. Lo and behold about two miles north of Malta, a deer jumped out of the ditch and wreaked havoc on their car. Brentton called his dad who went down to pick them up and push the vehicle off the highway. They borrowed a flatbed trailer on Saturday morning and ate lunch with gramma before they headed down to get the car. The highway patrol called my son and asked him to have the kids stop to visit. They were given a ticket for not reporting an accident in a timely manner. Yes, a ticket for $285. There was no damage to anyone else's property, no one got hurt, the car was not a hazard to other traffic. They were not being reckless or driving fast. I was hoping that the ticket would be thrown out, but the driver would have had to appear in Phillips County before the Justice of the Peace. She lives in Billings and now doesn't have a car. It would be a hardship. I've wanted them to come visit for many years. They came for Tom’s funeral but haven't been up before that for three years.

I've talked to many people since then. Most of the people if not all say you don't have to report a deer hit. So I say yes you do. The law says over $1,000 worth of damage and you can't hit a headlight for less than $1,000! So I'm using this as an informational purpose, if you hit a deer, report it. This was Abby’s first ticket and she would have four points against her. I just think it's unusual that I saw three dead deer on my way to Malta on Tuesday. I'm just putting in my two cents, but I'm sure none of those hits were reported! To be fair the ticket wasn't for hitting a deer, it was because they didn't report it. If they would have reported it, they wouldn't be fined. So now you know.

Sincerely,

Dixie Stordahl

Loring