Oak Bay’s police chief is in hospital with a broken clavicle and ribs after he was struck by a deer on Salt Spring Island.
Andy Brinton was cycling along a paved path about 10:30 a.m. Sunday when a deer bolted out from a forested area.
“It appeared to run directly for him and he had no time to react,” said Oak Bay deputy chief Ray Bernoties.
The police chief, who was off duty at the time, thinks he might have momentarily gone unconscious when he was thrown from the bike. Bernoties said Brinton’s helmet was dented, but he did not sustain a head injury.
Witnesses came to Brinton’s aid and waited until B.C. Ambulance paramedics arrived. Brinton underwent surgery for the broken ribs on Monday, Bernoties said. “He is expected to make a full recovery.”
Conservation officer Scott Norris said deer tend to become aggressive toward humans around rutting season. It’s not yet that time on Salt Spring, he said, so the animal that confronted Brinton might have been startled.
Norris said most of the land on Salt Spring Island is privately owned, not Crown land, so there isn’t much hunting there to control the deer population.
Oak Bay is well known for its struggle to deal with deer within its boundaries.
Oak Bay spent a total of $49,782 for deer management in the years 2014 and 2015, including education and legal costs, a contribution to the CRD Deer Management Strategy and the direct contracted cost of the cull which was $15,468 – a cull that saw 11 deer killed over a two-week period.
Nothing was spent in the fiscal year 2016. In 2017, a total of $43,308 has been spent, which includes a $20,000 grant from the province, for a deer study in preparation for a 2018 contraception trial, according to the municipality.
The Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society is conducting an assessment of the number and location of deer and patterns of movement. An application is expected to follow for funding for a population control program using birth control serum, said Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen. “That will hopefully take place next year.”
Bernoties did not want to comment on the irony of the police chief of a city known for its “deer problem” being struck by a deer in another town.
“I hope and think the day will come for some joking about this, but he’s in quite a bit of pain and doesn’t like to miss work so he’s taking this quite seriously — as we all are,” he said.
