But the idea is that part of being on public roadways is being responsible for damage you cause to public resources, regardless of fault. But you said you were going the posted speed limit, but if you were going well below the speed limit you would have had more time to brake and avoid the collision. Doesn't that stand to reason? If you were going 20 miles an hour, surely you wouldn't have hit the deer. To be clear though, I'm certainly not going to be driving 20 miles an hour at night, but I think if I hit a deer, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the driver to pay for that resource.

Maybe, another way to look at this, if the roads were icy out and you were going the posted speed limit in icy conditions, you would surely be cited for driving too fast for conditions, even though you were going the posted speed limit.