It's deer-collision season

[Kali]

It's deer-collision season
Hunters may look forward to the fall season, but auto insurers are understandably nervous. Each year some 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions kill more than 150 people, injure tens of thousands more, and cause more than $1 billion in vehicle damage. And the damage is probably much higher, as auto insurers say that nearly as many collisions go unreported, either because the owner isn’t required by law to report, or because of lack of insurance. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the average cost per insurance claim for collision damage is about $2,600. With injury claims, the total reaches $11,000 per collision.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that more than 11 million people hunted big game such as deer and elk in 2001, the most recent year the agency conducted its National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. (The survey is conducted every 5 years.) But few believe hunting pressure can have much of an effect on deer-vehicle collision rates. Recent studies show the deer population growing exponentially across the United States. How to protect yourself? Insurance companies say the best defense is alert driving. Be aware the peak time of deer movement is morning and evening, and remember that deer tend to travel together and often cross a roadway in single file. As for those vehicle-mounted "deer whistles?" Save your money. Research shows deer are not affected by that deterrence method.

<from an email I recieved - Kali>

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

1. The deer population is out of control in my area...considered the deer whis...

But after reading your post, I guess they don't really work.

I don't know what the answer is, but every year the deer make more deer and there is no hunting/natural predators in the suburban neighborhoods so the numbers are exploding. Driving in the car (especially with my kids in the back seat) I am constantly surveying the hills on either side of the roads looking for deer. And yes, I often have them cross in front of me. It's only a matter of time before my luck runs out and I hit one.:scared:

[LiberalEsto]

3. A couple crossed the road in front of us

about a week ago. Luckily they were far enough ahead that we could avoid hitting them.

Deer are eating the undercover in the woods and as a reult destroybf habitat for birds and other wildlife. They're also destroying farm crops and suburban gardens.We're in Derwood, Maryland, and Derwood used to be called Deerwood many years ago. There are so many that they're causing each other to starve.

[brook]

6. I figure

it'll happen sooner or later. There are areas here in town where I slow down to a crawl and scan the shrubbery. Sometimes there's a few grazing and I just pray they're gonna stay put until I'm past them.
My grandaughter's hit 2 in the past few years.

[jobycom]

2. Then there are the deer who run into you.

I saw a herd (flock, whatever) of deer spring across a road near here. One car hit one, the car behind stopped, and a deer slammed into the side of it. Killed the deer, put a huge dent in the car. Very sad to see.

[Swede]

4. I'm always watching for deer,when I drive.

Now's the time to be extra careful. When you see one deer,slow down,cause there are bound to be three or four following it.

[Annces]

5. Wildlife agencies need to do a better job controlling populations

Obviously sending out hordes of hunters does not keep the population down. Many hunters want to kill the big bucks.

There are studies being down on immunocontraception.

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/deer.htm

[RebelOne]

8. Wildlife agencies are doing a good job managing the deer

populations, but only for the benefit of the hunters. And contraception will not be used because that would lessen the amount of deer for hunters to kill.

[marions ghost]

15. hunters also stir up the populations and make them move around more

and hunting has been shown to have a stimulating effect on populations if you don't kill them all in any given area.

Not a good solution.

[hedgehog]

17. They're moving around before hunting season opens.

It's mating season so there is a lot of activity. Just ask my dogs. They spent hours last night barking at the bad deer to get out of our woods!

[marions ghost]

18. sure but when they start getting shot at, they really get moving

If you have a close deer population and hunters, it's not hard to see the disturbance is more than usual when hunting starts. I observe deer a lot too.

[hedgehog]

21. I've eaten the deer our neighbor has shot on our property and

I've eaten the deer that had it's neck broken by a car in front of the house. I am not anti-hunting, but I am anti-shooters. Our neighbor is a hunter. When hunting season is over, he's apt to be up in his deer hide video taping the wild turkeys and coyotes. Several seasons he hasn't shot anything because he couldn't get a clean shot. Other people are what I call shooters - they go out in the woods with a beer in one hand and leave cigarette butts all over and they shoot at anything that rustles the brush.

[marions ghost]

23. right call em shooters then

--those people who walk around with guns and terrorize wildlife and make the woods unsafe for people. Seems to be more of them than "hunters," or at least it's hard to tell the diff.

Just making the point that (whatever you call them) the gunners disturb the deer, and they don't kill enough of them to put a dent in the populations. Shooting a few of them stimulates population growth.

I'm not interested in discussing the merits or demerits of hunting--just saying that this time of year they stir up the deer.

[mainegreen]

7. Forget deer. Up here you want to watch for moose!

Those are usually fatal.

[hedgehog]

9. The deer whistles cost less than $10. I have only anecdotal

evidence that they work, but my advice is that for the price it wouldn't hurt to put them on your car. What you really got to start watching out for now are the coyotes. They're following the deer into suburbia. My daughter saw one that was so big she claims it was a wolf! I'm also waiting for a resurgence in the big cat population in the East. If there's protein on the hoof, predators will follow.

[kineneb]

10. deer and elk/moose

both can mess up your car and your life if you fail to miss them...

I have already had two "run-ins" with deer. Dents both times; one moderately expensive.

Hint: If you see one deer near the road, Slow Down. Where there is one, there is usually more; they are herd animals.

no moose here, but we do have Roosevelt elk... big suckers... big dents...

[meganmonkey]

11. I usually see them in groups of 3 or 4

And be especially careful around dusk and dawn - I have heard that that is when they move the most - and from experience it seems to be true (although I tend to travel to and from work at dusk/dawn).

I used to commute about 25 miles through a rural area. Now I live in the town I work so I seldom see deer anymore.

[Richard Steele]

20. Yup. As somone who grew up in 'deer country', I'll second that advice.

We used to have a saying: "You never hit the FIRST one".

Not only are they 'herd animals', they have the interesting
habit of traveling spaced out, SINGLE FILE.

When you see a deer crossing the road ahead of you,
there's almost always another one a few feet behind it.

And it's usually that NEXT one that will wait till the last
second, panic, and then jump right in front of your car.

If you see one crossing, slow down until you get past that point,
and watch the area the first one CAME FROM.

[Oilwellian]

12. The deer in my area are thick

For the most part, they sleep during the day and begin stirring in the late afternoon. Slow down if you're on a rural road and if one does leap out in front of you and you can't brake fast enough to avoid it, you're better off hitting it rather than trying to avoid it. Most people are injured when they try to avoid hitting the deer and wind up hitting another car or a tree. As for the deer whistles, I know several people who swear by them.

[blueknight]

13. i probably on a average,

see at least 20 or more a week. they out number squirrels around here

[undeterred]

14. Nothing worse than November in WI on the interstate

I think a lot of them happen overnight, and when I go to work in the morning, I see the mess.

[Squatch]

16. I truly hope that a deer collides with my

180 grain Nosler Accubond CT bullet next month in Maine.

[CabalPowered]

19. My brother had two collisions already this year

He had the whistles on and if it wasn't for his vehicle, he'd probably be dead. Both of the accidents were at night. I'd say over the last 10 years, my extended family has had at least a dozen collisions. I had a near miss just a couple weeks ago, again travelling at night. I think if it wasn't for my high intensity headlights, I would've hit it. If you want to avoid deer collisions, get good headlights and drive SLOW at night.

[hedgehog]

22. My dad tells me that there are more collisions with deer in his

suburb of Amherst, New York than in any other town in the state. I'm not sure if it's a result of the large deer population of high car population! The area consists of developments and woodland with no hunting allowed because there's always a house or road too close by.

[CabalPowered]

26. I think the largest factor is the fragmentation of the habitat

Deer are not stupid. They would much rather have a safe corridor between two points in their habitat. Here in Idaho, they've put in underpasses under the freeway just for the deer to cross the interstate safely. It definately helps as I occassionaly see herds of deer grazing near the underpasses. But that's harder to do on smaller highways and near residential developments.

[AngryAmish]

24. Burr Ridge is awful with them

Actually any suburb of Chicago by a forest preserve has an awful problem. Things are so tame.

[Tracer]

25. I've got a good sized dent in my front fender ...

... because I forgot the rule of thumb of: "look for the second deer".

While driving home in my (wooded) town, a deer crossed the road, well in front of me. I watched it go into the woods on my right and didn't notice Deer #2 coming out of the woods on my left.

I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. Deer #2 came crashing into me.

Thankfully, I was almost stopped, and he just bounced off my car onto the pavement, but got up and pranced away.

[Habibi]

27. Gets bad here in upstate New York, too.

I honk long and loud when I see them loitering at the edge of the road--hoping to scare them away from it and the drivers coming after me.

[spoony]

28. Especially trecherous for motorcyclists

Sadly, my aunt and uncle collided with a deer last year. Both were wearing helmets, but she had the misfortune of landing badly and didn't make it. My uncle's life kind of ended too, even though he survived. Things like that can happen so damn fast!

:-(