Parasites in play park and car crashes: Helmsdale’s deer problem

Jacquie Aitken, heritage curator at local museum Timespan, has had first-hand experience of deer collisions.

“Deer are a big problem on the roads here and, unbelievable as it may sound, I have written off two cars in the space of three years with full frontal impacts with two massive deer,” she said.

The first time it happened Aitken was driving home after work in March three years ago.

“Not even with a second’s notice a huge deer was in front of my car,” she said.

“All I could think to do was hold on to the steering wheel. The deer was on my car and the car’s airbag went off. I was in shock.”

Aitken had hoped it was one-off, but she was in a collision with another deer while in a queue of traffic in April this year.

She said the experience had left her anxious about driving.

“You don’t know what to expect,” she said.