I LOST control of my Prius !!

No, they don't work. They do make money for the guys that sell them. The supposed idea is that they make a high pitched whistle that alerts and annoys deer. The instructions give you a lot of nonsense about placing the whistles just the right distance apart, but in reality they don't work no matter how they are mounted. Scientific testing has show this to be true.

Tom

 

I think this is a situation where the OP would have benefitted from taking a defensive driving course. They cost about $250 generally and they're fun, the good ones use a skid car where they can put the car in all kinds of artificial skids and teach you how to respond to them. Very helpful, I think every driver in the US should be required to take one. Its way too easy to get a driver's license in the US.

The best thing to do is to hit the deer unfortunately. When you start making serious steering inputs at that speed you are putting yourself and others in grave danger. The entire mass of the vehicle is moving forward at 55MPH, you simply cannot shift that force and make it go off to one side, VSC or not. If not for the VSC you would have been in a serious accident, I guarantee it.

The rule of thumb in any kind of emergency maneuver at speed is to always brake before steering input because the act of braking shifts the weight of the car to the front and increases the chances of an oversteer condition (loss of control from the rear). If given the choice between an oversteer or understeer condition (loss of control from the front) you want an understeer condition. A FWDvehicle like the Prius is pretty front heavy and is prone to understeer vs oversteer. Were it a high powered V8 RWD vehicle with more even weight distribution it would be a different story.

Watch when following people on offramps and onramps. People who really know how to drive slow down before entering the curve on the onramp, and then coast or accelerate through it. People who...don't know how to drive as well...will brake off and on while navigating the curve. This increases the likelyhood of a skid though that curve if there should be any adverse road conditions.

But, with the advent of skid control systems I don't know, you just might be better off to steer through the turn, I'll have to do some research. When I took my higher end driver courses there was no skid control. It may be like ABS where the conventional way of braking just doesn't work.

Glad you're okay! If it makes you feel better it was not the Prius' fault, the systems did what they were supposed to do. If it weren't for the VSC...you'd have been in real trouble.