Drivers should use caution

Motorists warned: Fall likely time for deer-vehicle collisions

By Amy Widner

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansans have a one in 108 chance of hitting a deer with their vehicles this year, according to State Farm Insurance, and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission data suggest Pulaski, Cleburne and Independence counties are hot spots.

Arkansas ranks fifth in the nation for deer-vehicle collisions, with 18,498 collisions reported from the last half of 2007 and the first half of 2008, according to an Oct. 8 State Farm press release.

The likelihood of deer-vehicle crashes increases in the fall, when deer are more active and stray from their normal territory as they breed and forage for food in preparation for winter. Also, the shortening of daylight hours causes people to do more driving at dusk and dawn,

which are peak times for deer activity,

said Brad Miller, an Arkansas Game

and Fish Commission deer program

coordinator.

"The peak of breeding varies all

over the state," Miller said. "For [the

Three Rivers area], you're looking at

mid-November for being the peak of

breeding. From October to Decem

ber are the months when we see the

most deer-vehicle collisions." The AGFC keeps county-by-county

data on deer-vehicle collisions, but

Miller said the figures sorely under

represent actual collisions because

reporting is voluntary. However, of

the Three Rivers counties, the figures

were highest in 2007 for Pulaski, Cle

burne and Independence counties,

and Miller said these counties prob

ably actually are hot spots and notjust counties where people are more likely to report collisions.

Miller said a combination of factors will make deer-vehicle collisions more likely in particular places. Some areas are more attractive for deer, who tend to stick to the same grounds during most of the year, except for fall when they roam farther in search of food and mates. When these deer-friendly habitats cross with areas of high human populations or high-use roadways, collisions become a problem.

"Research has shown there are certain factors that can increase the likelihood of a collision," Miller said. "For example, if the area has a lot of forested land, if it has agricultural crops and if there's water nearby. So basically, there are small-scale microgeographical features that may contribute to a deer-vehicle collision."Female deer travel in groups, and males also do for some of the year.

"If you see one, there are more," Miller said. "Female deer are organized socially into matrilineal groups. What that means is that you have typically a doe and a couple of generations of offspring together. And the other part of that would be that it may just be an area that has something attractive to deer, and they may need to get across the road to utilize whatever resources they are looking for.

"So it's good to keep in mind that you may have missed the first one, but they may also have some friends." Deer-warning signs are placed in locations where repeated accidents have occurred and are a good indication of where people should be on their guard, Miller said.

Miller said that to avoid crashes, people should slow down during dusk, night and daybreak and use the vehicle's bright lights as much as possible to look for deer eye reflections in the woods. Drivers should keep an eye out for groups, heed highway warning signs and take note of areas where deer activityseems popular.

"I would say that research has shown that the deer whistles aren't very effective," Miller said of the retail plastic whistles that claim to ward off deer. "I wouldn't put my faith in it." Ellen Holden, a claim representative with Haymond-James Insurance in Searcy, said the worst thing people can do is swerve to avoid hitting the deer.

"With deer accidents, most of the damage we see is where they swerved and ran into the ditch," Holden said. "A lot of people will swerve [so as not] to hit the deer, and they'll run off the road and hit a tree and total their car. The deer moves; the tree doesn't." Holden said the most expensive accidents they see are head-on collisions and the least expensive are ones where the deer grazes the side of the vehicle. Tractor-trailer collisions with deer can be incredibly expensive, Holden said.

"Most accidents involving a deer can run anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000 for all types of vehicles," Holden said. "It all depends on where you hit them." State Farm reported in an Oct. 17, 2006, press release that deer-vehicle collisions in the United States were on the rise and were becoming more costly. State Farm saw 10,000 more insurance claims for deer collisions during 2005-2006 than the previous year. At the same time, the average property-damage cost for such accidents was $2,800 - up $300 from the previous year.

In addition to awareness of deer habits and habitat, Arkansas State Police Public Affairs Officer Bill Sadler said it's good to keep in mind that deer-vehicle collisions can happen anywhere.

"We've had them on [Interstate] 430, in metropolitan areas, small towns - anywhere," Sadler said.

The State Police do not keep statistics on deer-related accidents specifically but groups them in a general category of accidents involving animals. According to their Web site, in 2007 they worked with the following animal-related collisions: two that were fatal, 108 that resulted in injuries and 90 that resulted in property damage only.

In the nationwide State Farm report, states where deer-vehicle collisions are most likely to occur are: West Virginia (1 in 45 chance of hitting a deer), Michigan (1 in 78), Pennsylvania (1 in 97) and Iowa (1 in 105). West Virginia topped the list for the second year in a row, and Arkansas moved up from the previous period's ranking, from sixth to fifth place. Wisconsin dropped from third to seventh place. Miller said Arkansas' deer population has been on the rise for the last 10 years.

The 2007 county data collected by the AGFC for the Three Rivers area was: Pulaski (117 reports of deer-vehicle collisions), Cleburne (62), Independence (58), Lonoke (39), White (34), Sharp (11), Stone (7), Jackson (7), Izard (2) and Woodruff(0). Again, the data is based on voluntary calls to AGFC radio rooms and under-represents actual collisions.

Miller is working on getting the county data, which goes back for the last 10 years, on the AGFC Web site.

More information is available at www.agfc.com, www.statefarm.

com and www.asp.arkansas.

gov.

- awidner@

Three Rivers, Pages 55, 56 on 10/30/2008