PA28 pilot reported departing the runway during landing to avoid a deer. There was a prop strike and...

Attributes
ACN	959430
Time
Date	201107
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 12 Flight Crew Total 145 Flight Crew Type 110
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird Ground Excursion Runway Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Miss Distance	Horizontal 35 Vertical 0

Narrative:

After landing; during rollout; a deer entered the runway from the right. I applied left rudder to steer the airplane to avoid hitting the deer. This caused the aircraft the veer off the runway. When the aircraft left the runway it went onto wet grass; thereby causing loss of control. Braking was ineffective due to wet grass conditions. The aircraft skidded through the wet grass taking out a couple lights; one of which caused a prop strike. There was no significant damage to the aircraft and the pilot and passenger walked away. Plane was still under its own power. Aircraft was taxied to the hangar. While this could have been avoided by striking the deer; I do not know if that would have been a better option. Human factors that may have contributed to this event were the fact that it was late and some pilot fatigue may have been a factor.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 pilot reported departing the runway during landing to avoid a deer. There was a prop strike and damage to runway lights.

Narrative: After landing; during rollout; a deer entered the runway from the right. I applied left rudder to steer the airplane to avoid hitting the deer. This caused the aircraft the veer off the runway. When the aircraft left the runway it went onto wet grass; thereby causing loss of control. Braking was ineffective due to wet grass conditions. The aircraft skidded through the wet grass taking out a couple lights; one of which caused a prop strike. There was no significant damage to the aircraft and the pilot and passenger walked away. Plane was still under its own power. Aircraft was taxied to the hangar. While this could have been avoided by striking the deer; I do not know if that would have been a better option. Human factors that may have contributed to this event were the fact that it was late and some pilot fatigue may have been a factor.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.