North Carolina Deer / Car Collisions Rising

[roundball]

Just saw the latest available annual insurance statistics for North Carolina Deer / Car collisions...year of 2002.

The number of collisions had increased by 9.4% to 15,456 reported insurance claims...and AVERAGE OF 42 REPORTED COLLISIONS EACH AND EVERY DAY.

Resulting in 10 deaths and 1097 major injuries...almost 1 death and 100 major injuries each month.

Big vehicles like 18 wheelers are rarely bothered by such collisons and typically go unreported, so the real numbers of deer collisons would probably be significantly higher.

We need to make our North Carolina seasons even longer or at least add Sunday hunting !!

 

roundball
How many of those accidents reported where reported as being caused by a deer and in reality were caused by someone just loseing control?.
You nor I will ever know how many were!.
But since the insurance companys report it to the state game officials and lobby hard enough they will get more season imposed and you better hope that the MONEY talking doesn't take over the practical thinking on the Game Officials.
Between the US Forest Service complaining about deer eating regeneration of trees and the insurance companys lobbying because of monies paid for accidents reported due to deer . you may just end up with what we have had happen here in the north western part of PA...... DAMN FEW DEER !!
I have seen a grand total of 5 deer in the past month and I have been afield as much as I can. Usually everyday for at least a couple hours. I hope they stop doe season for a year to let the herd grow

Woody

 

[Maynerd62411]

I'll see at least 5 and up to 15 deer on any given evening between here and the town 12 miles East of here along the highway. Illinois allows extra tags and seasons ( youth, late season) in certain counties that have a higher population of deer. Youth season and late season are in 26 out of 102 counties. These counties still have the highest harvest totals in the state.
It works IF close attention is paid to it by the state DNR. The problem is , sometimes the state sets up a season and leaves it too long and does more harm than good. :imo:

 

[roundball]

I'll see at least 5 and up to 15 deer on any given evening between here and the town 12 miles East of here along the highway. Illinois allows extra tags and seasons ( youth, late season) in certain counties that have a higher population of deer. Youth season and late season are in 26 out of 102 counties. These counties still have the highest harvest totals in the state.
It works IF close attention is paid to it by the state DNR. The problem is , sometimes the state sets up a season and leaves it too long and does more harm than good. :imo:

We already have generous 6-tag seasons here...one problem is that we don't allow Sunday hunting...so the average deer hunter has 8-10 Saturdays...toss a couple out for bad weather, another for a family conflict, another for work, etc, and you've got 4-6 Saturdays to fill 6 tags...not gonna happen.

So we need more "days in the woods"...need Sunday hunting allowed to double the number of available days for the average hunter to get into the woods and hunt

 

roundball,
I bought a driver lic. and I am legal to drive 365 days a year.
I bought a hunting lic. and am legal to hunt 5 days a week in season.
NO HUNTING ON SUNDAYS is a carry over from old New england tradition. Church going people think you will be makeing to much noise and haveing fun and not in church putting your money in the collection plate.
Seem they haven't quiet seperated church and state yet.

Woody

 

[roundball]

roundball,
I bought a driver lic. and I am legal to drive 365 days a year.
I bought a hunting lic. and am legal to hunt 5 days a week in season.
NO HUNTING ON SUNDAYS is a carry over from old New england tradition. Church going people think you will be makeing to much noise and haveing fun and not in church putting your money in the collection plate.
Seem they haven't quiet seperated church and state yet.

Woody

It's a carry over from the deep south bible belt

 

[Powderhorn]

DavidS: I'm from Charleston and we're lousy with deer here.
I hit one last week ($1700) and almost got another yesterday. I think the combination of cornfields and forest cover really supports a lot of deer.
Hornman

 

[BLAHMAN]

Woody's got a valid point concerning seeing very little deer. Hunted in the Potter County area and saw one (1) deer in a week! PA game Commission got over zealous with a thing called "deer herd reduction", and did it ever work! From what I hear (and only what I hear) people are not too pleased with the deer population or it's management.

Then again, I know full well what deer/car collisions are all about. I have hit 5. All but one was a head on impact. Four deer ran into the road as I was passing, broadsiding my vehicle, breaking their necks and dying.

The last one I hit was a very large buck. It was at night......"It was a dark stormy night".....sorry......and at 70 MPH (actually traveling slower than the rest of the traffic) the dang thing bolted into my service van. It happened so fast I didn't know that I had collided with a deer. It had destroyed the front, severed the battery post, I lost power, air bag went off, rolled into a ditch and I felt like the damn van blew up. That was an expensive deer!

I was also injured.

So when I see a bunch of deer perusing around the freeway, I shake my fist at 'em at call 'em things my mother would be ashamed to hear. Makes me feel better.

 

[Griz]

Woody, same thing in south central PA. where I usually hunt on the first day it used to be nothing to see 40 + deer in one day. This year I saw 6 deer and none of them were any size I would consider taking. I think the Game Commission needs to take a step back and rethink this thing once more. Sorry, I guess I got off the subject :sorry:

 

[2172]

Roundball is in the middle of NC, the Piedmont. Here in the Western Mountains, while the deer herd is increasing, it is still pretty sparse. I think the causes are a long time, not-quite-ended tradition of poaching to feed a hungry family, that we have more deep forests with less undergrowth, and the kind of crops we raise...deer don't seem partial to tobacco. I think those causes are absent in Roundball's part of the state, and an additional factor is occurring...suburbanization...the deer just love those expensive landscapings...
Hank

 

[roundball]

Roundball is in the middle of NC, the Piedmont. Here in the Western Mountains, while the deer herd is increasing, it is still pretty sparse. I think the causes are a long time, not-quite-ended tradition of poaching to feed a hungry family, that we have more deep forests with less undergrowth, and the kind of crops we raise...deer don't seem partial to tobacco. I think those causes are absent in Roundball's part of the state, and an additional factor is occurring...suburbanization...the deer just love those expensive landscapings...
Hank

Good point Hank...which actually means that the majority of the North Carolina deer/car collisions probably occur in the Central / Eastern half of the state...the numbers of daily/monthy incidents are probably skewed much higher in those regions compared to number of incidents in the West

 

[scott k]

Sounds like you have the same problem in NC as we have in PA. The deer like to live where you can't hunt them. And like to live with us. I've seen deer where you never saw them when I was young. The herds are big around the city's where hunting peresure is low ends up a lot of cars hitting deer. More lisseces are issued, more deer are shot where we hunt, hunters see less deer, complain to PAGC, PAGC looks at total herd numbers, say the herd is still to big.....
Lehigh..

 

[Tahquamenon]

:hmm:

Looks like Roundball could use some help thinning out all of those deer! :thumbsup: ::

Insurance folks will undoubetly get their justification to raise rates. Funny, they normally just go ahead and raise them without being so kind as to toss out a statistic to justify doing so. Thoughtful. :shocking:

Hopefully the insurance folks will be sure to send the premium increases to the anti-hunting folks. :thumbsup:

 

[freetrapper20]

You might be right about the deer vs vehicle accidents occuring more in certain areas of the state. Here in Northeast NC the terrain is very flat and very thick. Most places the reeds are over my head and you have to get up a tree just to see and get out of the bugs somewhat. No hills or open forest land. Lots of pine forests but they are all growed up with reeds too. I'll guess 95% of the deer hunting around here is by dog clubs. (Us muzzleloader guys are really outnumbered)Dead deer and dead hunting dogs all over the roads from Oct. to Jan 1st. Personally I don't care for it. I hit a deer a few years ago and tore my truck up. I have been more careful ever since and still have a couple close ones each year. I don't think hunting on sunday would change much here other than giving us another day to hunt. They slaughter deer here running dogs and sometimes bring them out by the truckloads. I think there maybe are not as much hunters here as opposed to other areas or states for that matter. All the land is tied up in clubs, mostly dog running clubs. If you don't own property, you got to be in a club to have a spot to hunt. I have a little club on 664 acres. We don't run dogs, but they are all around us. Most guys that grew up hunting in the mountains that have tried it here in our club never came back for a second year. I lived in NE PA for twenty five years and hunt in WVa also. This is the best hunting I've ever had, even though its different than from what I had in the mountains. Skeeters, Ticks galore and hot and sticky. There are plenty of deer and plenty of places the dogs can't even bring them out of. Because of the terrain being so thick and swampy its a honey hole of a giant hiding place for deer. More deer in the area means more deer to jump out and get runned over too.

 

[Tahquamenon]

Michigan has had really good success with clearing farther back along the shoulders to give more area to see deer long the roads. It's really worked well. On side or back roads, growth near the roads are still issues, but on more major roads the MIDOT has done a pretty good job clearing things back.

I still normally avoid 2-5 deer every year.

 

[roundball]

Michigan has had really good success with clearing farther back along the shoulders to give more area to see deer long the roads. It's really worked well. On side or back roads, growth near the roads are still issues, but on more major roads the MIDOT has done a pretty good job clearing things back.

I still normally avoid 2-5 deer every year.

I'll probably 'jinx' myself saying this, but to my surprise, in my lifetime of hunting, going to places where deer are, during the hours that they're out crossing roads, etc...all I've had is a few close calls...so far haven't actually had a collision with one...
:shocking:

 

[JoeC]

Woody , and all you other Pa guys.
I live in N . E. Pa . same thing here , I don't see near as many deer as i did 4-5 years ago . I spend a lot of
time over the summer baling hay on a couple farms up in
WAyne county . Never once saw a deer last year while doing this . ( and i am talking about enough time to bale about
15,000 or so , bales of hay .)
We used to see 10-15 deer a day in the hunting season.
now i don't think we saw 10 deer between 4 of us in 4 days of hunting .
To add insult to injury , on the last day of out Muzzleloader season , i hunted with non-other than the famous (infamous) Mr. Gary Alt himself ..........I never saw a deer that day even after putting on 5 drives. Guess who was one of the few people to see a deer??????????
I was carrying my 4-bore that day , tried to get him to shoot it,thought that might make me feel better, but he wouildn't go for it ............
Maybe part of the problem is the combined doe/buck season. after the first couple hours , every deer gets shot
at and they wise up too quick .AT least before with the seperate 3 day doe season, the doe wern't spooked quite as much ....
Joe

 

[Tahquamenon]

I've had fur and horn on three vehicles. One was totaled.

 

[leslie]

Too bad I can't ship you some,had 8 inc. 2 bucks in the front yard this morning.I wouldn't mind except they eat the shrubs and roses.Can't shoot because I am barely inside the city.There are more deer every year because Weyco has been cutting close to town making lots of good browse,once they discover my shrubs ouch.

 

[Maynerd62411]

Hornman, I live in Effingham county, but I hunt Fayette county. The Kaskaskia river bottoms produce some really nice deer. You gotta love the cornfed deer. :thumbsup:
I've had a few real close calls, but no connections. No matter how careful you are, sometimes it just can't be avoided. My nephew had a deer HIT him , one night, right in the middle of his truck bed. The deer ran off.
There's reports in the Effingham paper every night, year round of someone hitting a deer. There's usually 3-4. :shake: