"My heart may have skipped a beat or two:" Bus driver describes close encounter with deer



Alfreeda Gogins



MILWAUKEE COUNTY -- On the different routes winding through Milwaukee County, transit bus drivers always have their eyes open.

“When I drive the bus, I think of it as being my own vehicle," said Alfreeda Gogins, MCTS driver. "And you take care of your own things.”

All the care in the world couldn’t prepare Gogins for what she experienced on Monday evening, heading east on Good Hope Road.

“I think my heart may have skipped a beat or two," Gogins said. "I’m quite sure the deer’s did.”

Thanks to dash cam video, Gogins’ quick reaction to avoid a four-legged Evil Knievel has gone viral. Call it the shout heard 'round the Milwaukee County Transit System.



“My older sister, she was saying, ‘Yeah and you thought you couldn’t sing soprano, huh?’" Gogins said, laughing. "She said, ‘You sure hit that high note.’"

Alfreeda Gogins



The deer in question either had a death wish, or a love of the game Frogger. It leaped over and through three cars before missing Gogins’ bus by the hairs on its white tail -- right in front of a deer crossing sign, no less.

“He jumped pretty much as good as I used to in high school," Gogins joked. "I was a hurdle jumper so I can kind of relate to what he was doing, but I think he had me beat with that one.”

Gogins is just happy her passengers and her bus are all OK after their breeze with a thrill-seeking buck.

“At the end, it’s like he slid. Like, ‘Whew, I’m safe,’" said Gogins. "And I was saying to myself, ‘Whew, he’s safe.’”