It’s dark, but you notice two eyes reflecting your car’s headlights just off the roadway. The glowing eyes suddenly and surprisingly move toward the roadway and, before you can avoid a collision, you’ve struck a deer.
Thousands of North Carolinians each year are involved in deer-automobile collisions, and law enforcement officials say the chances of striking a deer increases during fall, the peak season in North Carolina for such incidents. More than 16,500 collisions happened in 2017.
Breeding season for whitetail deer begins in late October and continues through the end of December. Experts say that during mating season, deer are more active and tend to roam freely.
Hunting season is also in full swing during the fall months and spooked deer may inadvertently end up in roadways, or more developed areas where they aren’t normally seen.
Add those factors in with shorter daylight hours, and collisions are an inevitable result.
Billy Bingham is a bit of an expert on the matter. For the last 22 years, he has repaired deer-damagedvehicles. As the owner of CarSmart Body Shop in Pittsboro, he sees an uptick in his workload when fall arrives.
“This time of the year, we get a lot of business,” Bingham said. “From October until probably February, business really picks up.”
He said he’s heard from customers about “all kinds of accidents.”
“We have some people come in where the deer will actually kick a stopped vehicle,” Bingham said. “Someone will see the deer and stop, and the deer will get scared and jump on their car or kick their door.”
Jimmy Pilkington, the owner of J & M Paint and Body Shop in Pittsboro, is also a seasoned veteran of repairing vehicles damaged by deer.
“Oh yes,” he said, “for many years we have seen a lot more business this time of the year because of deer.”
Already this year, the shop has worked with customers to repair damages ranging from $300 to more than $6,000.
“We see the full scope,” Pilkington said. “They hit them from all sides. Last year, we had a deer come through the top of a woman’s car.”
According to the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, almost half of all deer-related accidents in North Carolina in 2017 happened during October, November, and December, with nearly a quarter of those occurring in November alone.
Early morning hours and early evening hours are prime times for deer-related accidents, according to UNC.
Almost four out 10 of deer-related accidents occurred between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the fall last year. More than 10,000 accidents involving deer occurred in 2017 on dark roadways with little or no street lighting.
“In Chatham County, you have a lot of rural area with not as much light, so that just makes it more dangerous,” Bingham said. “But I’ve seen them out in the lighter areas too. We have people bring cars in that hit deer in the middle of town or busy roads. I saw a deer in the middle of town the other night, and I almost hit it. It blew my mind that it was in such a well-lit area on a traveled road. With Chatham Park and some of the other developing in the county, you’re seeing them move out of the areas that they were in and move into more developed areas.”
Pilkington said he has noticed not only an increase in business over the last month, but also an increase from last deer season.
“I believe we’ve seen more business this year than last. I think it’s probably because of the deer disease that hit across the state last year,” he said.
Last year, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission received multiple reports of sick and dying deer as a result of hemorrhagic disease. Most of the reported cases were in Western North Carolina.
Two viruses cause the disease. One of the viruses produces a “blue” tongue, while the other produces epizootic hemorrhagic disease. Infected deer became emaciated, lose motor control, and show signs of swelling in the legs and head.
But data collected by UNC shows an increase in deer-related crashes from 2016 to 2017 by nearly 700.
To avoid collisions with deer, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety recommends using high beam headlights at night when there is no approaching traffic. Your vehicle’s lights will illumine the eyes of deer on or beside the road. Drivers should also decrease their speeds in wooded or farmland areas, particularly where deer crossing signs are posted.
If you approach a deer in the road, authorities recommend drivers slow down and honk their horn to encourage the deer to move. If that doesn’t work, turn on hazard lights and wait for the deer to move, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
Though instinctively, you may want to swerve to avoid hitting a deer, the N.C. Department of Safety says swerving leads to a higher risk of hitting another vehicle head-on, or causing another vehicle to lose control.
If you do strike a deer, the N.C. Highway Patrol advises drivers not to attempt to remove the animal carcass from their vehicle or the roadway. Instead, motorists are asked to pull to a safe location off the roadway and dial 911 for assistance.