Avoiding Deer Verses Car Collisions

I'm grateful deer rutting season is coming to an end. I don't know about you but I spent a good deal of the Fall dodging the beautiful white-tailed creatures on New Jersey's roadways this year.

I also learned that I wasn't imagining things. There were more deer verses car accidents than usual this year. According to Wild New Jersey more than 4,700 deer were killed by vehicles through the first week of November alone, making the month the deadliest for deer-vehicle collisions.

The best piece of advice in avoiding devastating deer - car collisions I learned from an NJ101.5 news story years ago and have told anyone who will listen. The reporter spoke to a State Wild Life expert about deer habits and the expert shared that deer are social creatures and seldom travel alone. The expert says it's usually not the first deer that darts across the roadway that you strike but the second that's following close behind. I can't tell you the number of times that simple piece of advice spared me from a costly collision.

Shortly after I heard the story I was traveling on a rural stretch of road in Somerset County. To my surprise, a beautiful adult stag with a large rack of antlers majestically lept across the roadway. So I slowed down to a near crawl in expectation of the second deer and shore nuff! the second deer followed some 15 seconds behind. I would have hit that deer if I hadn't heeded that advice and it may have saved my life.

So remember, If you see a deer crossing the road slow down because a second or third may not be far behind.