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Deer collisions up significantly

Deer gun season opens Monday in Ohio.

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By Local, wire reports 6:30 PM Friday, November 27, 2009

As the state’s deer hunters prepare for the gun season opening day Monday, Nov. 30, a new study by State Farm Insurance Co. concludes that collisions with deer have increased dramatically in the past five years, both nationwide and in Ohio.

Using its claims data and other statistics, the insurer found that such collisions had jumped 18 percent nationwide and 27 percent in Ohio when it compared the two-year periods from July 2002 through June 2004 and July 2007 through June 2009.

The number of vehicles on U.S. roads grew only 7 percent in that time.

This year’s deer gun season runs from Monday to Sunday Dec. 6. There are an estimated 425,000 deer hunters who will be out hunting during that week in Ohio, ODNR said. The figure is consistent with previous years, said Vicki Ervin, ODNR spokeswoman. Between 115,000 and 125,000 deer will be harvested from a herd of 600,000, she added.

The deer-collision statistics are different from those the State Highway Patrol collects each year from local law-enforcement agencies and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Those numbers show that deer-vehicle crashes dropped by 6.5 percent from 2007 to 2008 -- from 26,304 to 24,590.

State Farm estimated that drivers had 67,331 deer collisions between July 1, 2008, and June 30, compared with 66,353 in the year-earlier period. U.S. drivers had 1.2 million deer collisions, the insurance company estimated.

Blake Zitko, a public-affairs specialist with State Farm in Newark, said the statistical difference could be explained in part by notification -- who drivers tell after they hit a deer. The state patrol doesn’t take reports unless the crash is serious or a driver needs a patrol report for insurance purposes.

“A lot of (deer) crashes go unreported,” said Russ Rader, director of media relations for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “We think they’re vastly underreported.”

Rader said state statistics on deer crashes are “a hodgepodge” because states gather them in different ways.

“It’s a very hard number to come by,” he said. “I don’t know of any good state-by-state numbers.”

Ohio, according to State Farm’s report, isn’t the most dangerous state for deer collisions. That is West Virginia, where each vehicle has a 1-in-39 chance of striking a deer in the next year.

Michigan, with a 1-in-78 chance, is the second-highest, followed by Pennsylvania with a 1-in-94 chance. Ohio, with a 1-in-161 chance, is considered a “medium-risk state.”

One way that drivers can prevent collisions with a deer is to be vigilant when they see a deer-crossing sign. The Ohio Department of Transportation places the signs a mile before locations where there have been 10 or more deer-related crashes in a three-year period, spokeswoman Paula Putnam said.

But, she said, deer can cross anywhere, so drivers need to be wary everywhere, particularly in the last three months of the year when deer are more active during mating season.

Kathy Lynn Gray of the Columbus Dispatch and Dayton Daily News Staff Writer Steve Bennish contributed to this story.

Deer strikes by the numbers

* 24,590: Deer-vehicle crashes in 2008 in Ohio, according to State Highway Patrol

* 67,331: Deer-vehicle crashes from July 1, 2008, to June 30 in Ohio, State Farm says

* 150: Fatalities a year from deer crashes nationwide

* 6-9 p.m.: When deer are most active

* 650,000: State wildlife estimate of current Ohio deer population

Sources: State Highway Patrol, State Farm Insurance Co., Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

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Lemme help those who may fall victum to a deer collision: Get off the cell phone, slow down, and watch your lanes. I wish the DMV/BMV would make it mandatory a five year renewal testing for all citizens to continue to have a DL.
Dawn and Dusk be more cautious of the road. (I should know, I drive an hour and half one way to work each day. With more awareness, the possibilities of hitting a deer are less. Lastly, stay alert, if that means chuggin' the coffee, do it.)

Lorie
4:36 PM, 11/29/2009

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Development of every green space availble is the cause of rising collision rates. Don't need no million doller study or genius to figure that out

Ajax
11:58 AM, 11/29/2009

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Keith, where are you getting this idea that the hunting is what is driving them to jump in the road and there are more hunters than ever? Hunters are becoming fewer not greater and deer jump out in the roads all year long but guns that would scare them are only used a total of two weeks in the year.

Heck, if gun fire was the item drivng them then the cities would be the LAST place they would run!

Quentin
9:37 PM, 11/28/2009

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We keep taking trees down to put buildings and houses up forcing deer to enter closer to cities. Gun season only spooks the deer causing them to run in roads. They've also upper the number of deer you can catch and there's more hunters now than ever before. There's a number of reasons deer are on the run and it's not because they're over populated. A good solution to help this is take down old buildings and build new ones there before taking nice land away from the wildlife. It's their space.

Keith
6:48 PM, 11/28/2009

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Deer are migrating to urban areas- no predators, no chance of being shot and plenty of tasty flowers and garden goodies to eat. In Wash Twp, they come around in broad daylight and don't run unless you chase them.

Take away hunters and the deer population explodes. Deer eat the food other species need for survival and upset the balance of nature. The humane thing to do is thin the population.

If tree huggers take over the world the human race will die of stupidity- no survival instinct.

Norm Kern
6:19 PM, 11/28/2009

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