Man catches a deer ‘as tall as the car’ crossing a main road in lucky dashcam footage

Blink and you’ll miss it – a man driving from in Templestowe thought he was dreaming when he saw a large animal cross a busy main road.

A man driving home has caught footage of a deer crossing a busy main road in Melbourne’s inner north east.

Templestowe resident Michael Banks said he “thought he was seeing things” when he saw a large deer crossing Fitzsimons Lane in Templestowe on Sunday, June 26, just before 9.30pm.

“I’ve seen kangaroos a fair few times around here, but never a deer,” he told Leader.

Mr Banks was so stunned he did not initially recognise the animal for what it was.

“I honestly thought it might be a large kangaroo or a cow on the road,” he said.

“Like I said, kangaroos aren’t uncommon and I’d never seen anything like it before. At least not in the suburbs.”

Mr Banks said he was not just surprised at seeing the animal, but also at how large it was.

“It was as tall as the car, easily, and it looked quite sturdy,” he said.

Mr Banks said the incident had left him almost unable to sleep on Sunday night.

“I honestly was glad that I drove along when I did, if I had been five or 10 seconds earlier, I can’t even imagine how it could have ended up, let alone the injuries that could have happened to the animal, an accident would have written off the car for sure.”

Mr Banks said the deer wasn’t startled by the traffic, despite the road still being relatively busy.

“It didn’t even look my way – it just kept going into the parkland next to the road,” he said.

The deer can be seen in the dashcam footage crossing the road, looking not dissimilar to a shadow.

“I honestly am glad I have the footage, because otherwise I would have thought I was dreaming,” Mr Banks said.

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