A 39-year-old Carroll County woman was killed this weekend when a deer crossed the road in front of her motorcycle, state police said.
Julie Anne Lang, of the 2300 block of Snydersburg Road in Westminster, was thrown from the 2004 Harley Davidson Low Rider, police said.
They said she was wearing a helmet, but still suffered a serious head injury.
The collision occurred on Route 27 at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Lang was flown by state police helicopter to Shock Trauma, where she was pronounced dead several hours later, said Cpl. G.H. Noyes.
Accidents involving deer are fairly common in the county, especially in the fall, Noyes said.
He said deer are the animals most common involved in accidents with people, and are also the animals that cause the most damage.
But less than 1 percent of traffic accidents involving animals kill people, Noyes said.
Lang would have had a much better chance of surviving the accident if she had been driving a car, he said.
Nationally, about 1.5 million crashes between vehicles and deer occur annually, killing about 150 people, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said there were almost 4,000 deer-related crashes in Maryland in 2003.
Lang is survived by one son whom police contacted, according to Noyes.
Police are continuing the investigation.
