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Woman says deer hit her car after she hit house

By Howard B. Owens

A driver reportedly lost control of her car, hit a house on Swamp Road and then left the scene of accident, according to a Sheriff's Office accident report.

She reportedly told Deputy Frank Bordonaro that after striking a tree and a house, a deer ran into her car.

Deborah S. Mayo, 43, of 7008 Swamp Road, Byron, is the reported driver. According to the report, she was not injured.

Mayo was charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, failure to reduce speed for a curve and leaving the scene of an accident involving an animal.

According to the report, Mayo was driving in the area of 6657 Swamp Road at about 11:07 p.m..

Beth Kinsley

She reported that after striking a tree and a house, a deer ran into her car. Is that what you meant to type Howard? It's not really what the picture shows.

Nov 22, 2009, 12:46am Permalink
Gary Spencer

FYI: Howard did not draw the dear, this is odiously the official police report, and they obviously did not believe the "The deer hit my car AFTER I hit the tree and house " story!

Nov 22, 2009, 8:07am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

The report reads: "Vehicle 1 collided with a tree in the yard of 6663 Swamp Road. Vehicle 1 then collided with the house at 6657 Swamp Road. Vehicle 1 left the scene. Driver of Vehicle 1 stated that a deer entered the roadway and ran into Vehicle 1."

Nov 22, 2009, 11:05am Permalink
C. M. Barons

It would appear that the fourth sentence is not intended to be chronological- instead an explanation for the sequence afforementioned. I would interpret the event: deer intercepts car, driver swerves, hitting tree and house. Of course, the explanation is provided by someone anxious to avoid legal consequences.

Swamp Road imposes on a large herd of deer and is duly avoided this time of year (rut). It is also an under-travelled alternative to Townline Road (Rt. 262), affording alcohol-consuming drivers a sense of invisibility. The latter being less than applicable; the driver has a Swamp Road address.

I think Howard's reports would benefit from a second set of eyes. Not that Howard is a poor writer, he's in a hurry. There was a story last week that had obviously been copy/paste-edited. Unfortunately, two opposing fragments contradicted each other. News has but one enemy: time; journalism does not expend accuracy and style. ...Kind of a quandry.

Nov 22, 2009, 1:23pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

C.M., I'm quite confident is meant to convey the sequence of events as suggested in how I wrote the story.

The narrative begins, "Vehicle 1 was traveling westerly on Swamp Road. Vehicle 1 failed to negotiate the curve and traveled off the north shoulder of the road way." And then it picks up the quote above.

Now, I can see how you're reading it, but that's the sequence of events that Deputy Bordonaro writes.

There's no mention of the deer as a cause of her failure to negotiate the curve.

Nov 22, 2009, 2:13pm Permalink
C. M. Barons

The Deputy reports, "Driver of Vehicle 1 stated that a deer entered the roadway..." The quote is out of context with the rest of the report. The prior information is unattributed, logically the Deputy's observations.

She was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving an animal. One must assume that she was interviewed at the scene of the house collision, necessarily, following the deer encounter. Otherwise she would have been charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage.

The arrows on the illustration support the deer, tree, house chronology.

Granted the report does not assign a cause and effect link to the deer and tree/house collision. The facts, seem to bear out the sequence of events as deer strike ahead of tree and house. Why else would the driver provide evidence to a car/deer collision if not to explain leaving the road?

Nov 22, 2009, 3:08pm Permalink

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