?Michael Lee Black is grateful his wife, Tonya, wasn’t sitting in the passenger seat of his Mazda when a deer crashed through the front window.
Black, 52, of Riverside Drive, Salisbury, was traveling Thursday on Agner Road, around 6:30 a.m., 6.5 miles east of Salisbury when he hit the deer.
“It was something else. I didn’t even see him until he was coming through the window,” Black said by phone.
It was still dark at the time of the accident.
Black believes the deer tried to jump the car, he said, because the only hoof marks were on the hood.
“It tore my face up pretty good. The seat belt got my shoulder pretty good. I have a big welt by my shoulder,” he said.
Black told N.C. State Highway Patrol Trooper B.P. Potts all he remembered was being kicked and the next thing he knew a deer was inside his car.
“He didn’t know about where it came from and what side of the road,” Potts said.
Potts said it appears the deer came from the left side of the road. There was major damage to the hood of the car and windshield.
The deer came to rest partially in the passenger floorboard and on the seat.
Black pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the road, he told the trooper.
Black was taken to Rowan Regional Medical Center by ambulance. His in-laws notified his wife of the crash while he was enroute to the hospital.
He was released the same day.
Black said he’s taking “blood thinners” so there was some concern because of the cuts and scratches to this face.
Hours after the crash, Black said he was pretty sore, but still glad he was in the car alone.
Black was on his way to pick up his wife at the Meadows of Rockwell Retirement Center, where she works.
He cautioned motorist traveling on Agner Road to be careful.
Black later had a little laugh about his dinner — deer stew. His father-in-law had prepared the stew the night before.
Liberty Fire Department also responded to the scene.

Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.