There is one deer for every 2.5 registered vehicles in Alabama — 1.8 million deer and 4.5 million vehicles according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va.
Usually, deer stay in the woods and cars stay on the roads, but more than 25,000 times in the past 10 years they have collided. The toll on people from these hits is growing worse across the nation.
Nationwide, 210 people in vehicles were killed in collisions with animals last year, a record high that is double the number in 1993, according to the Institute.
Most of the motor vehicle crash deaths in collisions with animals such as deer occur in subsequent events when a vehicle runs off the road or a motorcyclist falls off the bike. Many of these deaths wouldn’t occur with appropriate protection.
In a study of the characteristics of fatal vehicle-animal crashes, the Institute found that 60 percent of the people killed riding in vehicles weren’t using safety belts, and 65 percent of those killed riding on motorcycles weren’t wearing helmets.
“A majority of people killed in these crashes weren’t killed by contact with the animal,” Allan Williams, the Institute’s chief scientist said. “As in other kinds of crashes, safety belts and motorcycle helmets could have prevented many of the deaths.”
Fatal crashes involving animals have increased since the mid-1990s, federal government data show. During 1998-2002, the annual average was 155 crashes in which vehicle occupants died. This compares with an average of 119 fatal crashes during 1993-97. In 2003 there were 201 fatal crashes, a 27 percent increase compared with 2002.
In Alabama, animal-vehicle wrecks have killed 49 people and injured 2,274 in the past 10 years, according to Department of Transportation reports. The data doesn’t say how many of the deaths or injuries came from deer, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that deer are the cause of 90 percent of animal-vehicle wrecks.
The average cost of vehicle damage from hitting a deer is about $2,000 nationally, according to the Institute. This is the worst time of the year for deer collisions. Nearly 30 percent of Alabama vehicle-deer crashes happen in December and January. During winter months, the deer actively seek food, and they breed during January, according to Keith Guyse a wildlife biologist with the Alabama Department of Conservation.
The worst time of day for deer collisions is during winter afternoon rush hours, as deer become more active. Twenty-eight percent of Alabama’s wintertime deer crashes in the 10-year period happened between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. and most collisions have been on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the records.
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