November is most dangerous month for car-deer crashes

By Eric Litke
Sheboygan Press staff

If you get that uneasy feeling a deer is lurking just beyond your headlights in the coming weeks, you just might be right.

Tara Brutzman was. But that didn't stop her 2004 Cadillac CTS from abruptly meeting its furry brown match while taking a friend home in Cascade earlier this month.

"I had just even said watch out for deer," lamented Brutzman, 23, of Plymouth. "It just came right out of the ditch. … It came pretty much right when I said it."

The accident is not unusual in Sheboygan County — there were 501 vehicle-deer crashes reported in 2008 — but they're particularly common this time of year, statistics show. Last year, 38 percent of all vehicle-deer crashes in Sheboygan County occurred in October and November.

November ranked far above any other month with 116 crashes, followed by October with 76.

Dan Weidert, a wildlife biologist, said the area's whitetail population is on the move now looking for food and mating partners. Sheboygan County is home about 10,000 deer.

"They come out of the summer range where … there's not a whole lot of movement needed in the population because food is readily available," said Weidert, of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "Well, food becomes a little more scarce as the weather gets colder, and of course the rut kicks in and that causes even more increased deer movement."

Sheboygan County ranked eighth among Wisconsin's 72 counties for total vehicle-deer crashes last year, and Wisconsin's 15,821 total vehicle crashes ranked it eighth among the 50 states. The nationwide ranking, compiled by American Family Insurance, says Wisconsin drivers have a 1 in 116 chance of crashing into a deer in the next 12 months.

So you could say Keith Bagley of Waldo beat the odds. His impromptu creation of a white-tailed hood ornament was his second such crash in six months. Bagley, 37, said he's hit several others in the past as well.

"I've been driving for 20 years in the state of Wisconsin — I've hit deer," Bagley said with a laugh. "You don't hit'em intentionally, but come'on, they're frickin' rodents."

But the odds may be better than in years past. The number of vehicle-deer crashes dropped by 12 percent statewide last year and 19 percent in Sheboygan County, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. There were no fatal vehicle-deer crashes in Sheboygan County in that span, but the crashes claimed 10 lives statewide.

Among the vehicle-deer crashes in Sheboygan County in 2008, 11 resulted in injuries (five of which involved motorcycles) and 490 caused property damage only. That was down from 11 injury crashes and 604 property damage crashes in 2007.

Weidert says the size of the deer herd changed little from 2007 to 2008, and Capt. Cory Roeseler of the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said there are likely many factors in the decrease.

"Obviously, the less miles traveled (due to the economy)," Roeseler said. "I'd like to say the drivers being more attentive, (and) you've got to throw in the possibility of less people reporting them" if economic pressures forced them to drop insurance coverage.

The average vehicle-deer crash causes $2,464 in damage, according to American Family.