In the late night/early morning hours of October 17th my partner and I were on our way back home to Dayton from Cleveland driving on I-70 near London, Ohio. There were no street lamps on the stretch of highway, or surrounding areas, no lights on any exit signs and no mile markers. But there were multiple signs, for multiple miles, warning of deer crossing.

My partner and I were going 75 in the middle lane on I-70 (the posted limit is 70) when we spotted a group of deer about 6-10 deep on the right side of the road right before we were about to pass them. There was absolutely no way to have seen the group further back with only our headlights and no others. My partner slowed the speed of the vehicle to be more prepared for any more deer that could have been on the side of the road ahead of us, but instead, we were met with a doe standing still in the middle lane of the highway.

We did not have any time to react or prepare for such an impact and ended up going full speed through the doe, making it bounce behind our vehicle. Both airbags deployed and our cabin quickly filled with smoke as my partner tried to make his way from the middle lane into the shoulder of the highway, trying to be mindful of the semi's behind us since they probably couldn't see what was happening either.

We escaped the cabin and called state highway patrol immediately, but because there were no street lights we could not give them any information as to where we were. Because there were no street lights, we didn't see the deer we hit until we were right in front of it. Because there were no street lights, my partner and I almost lost our lives.

I am petitioning for the State of Ohio to install overhead street lamps on highways that run through deer crossing areas, for the sake of every Ohioan's life and the sake of Ohio's deer population.