Change the Statistics

I was heading to work this morning with good things on my mind, when I almost became a statistic…again.

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Patrick and Christa were at our house getting ready for their imminent wedding.  Annie had cooked a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs for me.  She had whipped up a batch of my Granny Corn’s creation which we have always called, simply enough, chocolate.   My wife had gone to the extra trouble of making me a special small pot of chocolate, substituting Stevia for sugar in consideration of my diabetes.

We were still on cloud nine due to the birth of our newest granddaughter, Hallie Claire, who joined Andy, Madison, and Harper’s household late yesterday afternoon.

Due to the COVID epidemic we wouldn’t be able to see Hallie for another few days, so, with a song in my heart and a smile on my face, I was heading off to work.  The hill-road was lined with the beautiful colors of fall and I was enjoying the early morning drive.

That’s when I went around a blind curve and almost added to the collision statistics.

A young deer, barely old enough to have lost its spots, was standing beside the road, well camouflaged by her natural color…until she leapt out onto the road…directly in front of me.

I automatically hit my brakes enough to slow quickly without going into a skid.  The deer was doing her own skidding though, as hard hooves sought purchase on the blacktop road, but she wasn’t getting much traction.  Hooves slid on the pavement and my car nosed down. 

We missed an unpleasant meeting by mere inches.

About 1.5 million people in the U.S. every year don’t avoid one of those collisions.  One-point-five million.

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Just this past summer Annie and I were on our way home from visiting some of our grandbabies.  Just a few miles from home, we crossed a bridge and, before the van’s shocks had rebounded fully, a deer appeared in front of us. 

We became one of those 1,500,000 deer-vehicle collisions for 2020.

In those accidents, damage amounting to approximately $1 billion occurs.  Yes, that’s ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR.

Besides damage to vehicles, every year about 10,000 people are injured in that type crashes, and an average of 150 people per year are killed.  Those 150 people are someone’s mothers, fathers, grandmas, grandpas, daughters, and sons.

It could be me, and it could be you.  And the chances of it happening are increasing.

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In the past year the number of deer-related insurance claims has gone up 4.4% .  In the last four years they have increased 7.9%.  In those same four years claims for insurance reimbursement for all other causes have gone DOWN by 8.6%.  The number of human fatalities due to collision with deer has more than doubled in the past 15 years.

DOUBLED!  In just 15 years!  And indications are that the numbers will keep going up, and at an increasing rate.

What can be done about these dangers?

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Drive defensively.  Always be on the alert.  Keep your eyes on the road and not on your cellphone or anything else.  Don’t drive impaired.  OK, those two are givens.  Don’t do them anytime.

Deer-automobile accidents occur most often in the months of November, October, and December, in that order.  October, November, and December are almost exclusively the months of deer mating season.  During that time bucks don’t think of much of anything except finding receptive does, and non-receptive ones run from them.  Running does and chasing bucks don’t pay much attention to anything except running.  That’s why we have to.

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Collisions occur most frequently at dawn and dusk.  Your vision is most impaired then by the rising and setting sun, and that’s also when deer are most active.  That’s a bad combination.

They occur more during the night than during the daylight, but they can happen at any time, day or night.

Use your high-beam headlights whenever possible, both to alert deer to your presence, and to make it easier for you to see them.

If possible, don’t drive on the far-right lane.  I know it’s the law in many places, but if you can…   Not driving near the side of the road gives you a better chance of seeing deer and avoiding them.  The closer you are to them, the more likely they are to feel the need to jump and run, one direction or another.

I haven ‘t seen any statistics to support this one, but it makes sense to me that the less deer in general, and, specifically, the less bucks there are out there, the less chasing there will be.  An estimated 6 million deer are taken off the roads and put into the freezer each year by hunters, and at the time of the year when they are most likely to cause car-deer accidents.  You know I like to hunt but, honestly, despite my own beliefs, hunting is the most effective and economical form of deer-population control we have.  Simply put, whether you believe in hunting or not, don’t discourage your friends from taking part in the sport.

What else can you do?

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With as many as 30 million deer in the U.S. today, some collisions are inevitable.  Think about the following.

First, I don’t recommend the use of deer whistles.  Statistics I’ve seen indicate that they don’t work.  Worse yet, some people get complacent because they put too much trust in them.  They are cheap and, at about $10, they can’t hurt…unless you depend on them and ignore other safety precautions, such as the following.

Wear your seatbelt.  How hard is that?  As soon as you get in your vehicle, put on your seatbelt.

If you see that a collision with a deer is imminent, apply your breaks like I did.  Don’t push all the way down, sending your vehicle into a skid.  Many newer vehicles are equipped with anti-skid brakes.  I love ‘em!

Don’t swerve excessively.  Maybe a little but, if you swerve hard, you are likely to lose control, or steer into the deer’s path. 

If you stay straight and apply your brakes, you stand your best chance of avoiding an accident.

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Over the years, Annie and I have had several car-deer accidents that ended in thousands of dollars in damage to our vehicles.  Neither of us was injured, but the deer didn’t fare so well.  All of them ended up dead. 

No one benefits when a car hits a deer.  About 350,000 are killed every year by motor vehicles.

A tally of 150 people and 350,000 deer killed by deer-automobile accidents each year.  That’s a lose, lose situation if I’ve ever heard of one.

I don’t want to add to those statistics, and I don’t think you do either.

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