A FAMILY is recovering after their car was severely damaged in a collision with a deer in west Donegal.
The vehicle carrying two adults and a child collided with the animal on the Loughanure to Dungloe road.
Two occupants received minor injuries while the car had to be written off as a result of the heavy impact.
Glenties Municipal District Councillor Marie Therese Gallagher said Saturday’s incident had left the family shaken.
“The deer jumped out from the side of the road in front of the car. Two of the passengers were injured, not badly injured but one of them suffered a cut.
“They did get a terrible fright and the car is a wreck. It was a very serious incident but if there had been another car coming and they had swerved to avoid it, it could have been much worse.”
The incident has reignited discussions about Donegal’s wild deer population which some say has reached unmanageable levels.
Councillor Gallagher said the situation had become very dangerous and needed to be tackled in an appropriate manner.
“This puts a focus on the fact that we seriously need to do something about this,” said the Sinn Féin member.
“We are not going to solve this situation completely and we can’t cull every deer in the country but something needs to be done.
“We have been talking about meeting with National Parks and Wildlife to discuss what the best options available are.
“I don’t know what we need to do but I think we should look at best practice and what has worked in other areas.”
Marie Therese Gallagher said her council colleague Michael McClafferty – a strong advocate for a deer cull – had made a very salient point recently.
“Councillor McClafferty made a good point that we will be all shouting about it if someone is killed on the roads because of a deer,” Councillor Gallagher added.
Defence Forces
As recently as last week Michael McClafferty reiterated his call for the Defence Forces to be drafted in to sort the problem. He made his comments following a separate deer and car collision near Gortahork.
He raised the issue again at the latest meeting of Glenties Municipal District.
Councillor McClafferty said there was now a “serious deer problem” in parts of the county that was not going away. He is pushing for the relevant agencies to hire the army or “people confident with rifles” to deal with the matter.
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