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Leaf-peepers are about to hit the road in force – as they always do this time of year. While soaking in the burning foliage colors with your eyes, it's only too easy to forget you're behind the wheel, a situation that can lead to disastrous consequences.
Really surprised me Pennsylvania wasn't in that top 5 list. A drive down a freeway there and you see more deer taking a dirt nap on the shoulder of the road than any place I've been.
I'm surprised Iowa is #2. We had tons of deer running around, but I guess I just assumed everyone else did as well.
My dad never hit a deer in his life, then ran into 3 within 6 months. I've only hit one - back in high school. I watched Cujo with a friend, was driving home at midnight during a thunderstorm (partially freaked out because of the movie), and then I see these glowing eyes of a deer come racing right into the front of my car. I just closed my eyes and screamed, and when I opened them I saw two back legs pointing straight up flying over the hood of my car. Freeeaky.
I've only hit one ....in Michigan. I was only doing about 30 just coming into town and clipped his rear end with my right front, it took him off his feet, he stood back up and ran off into the woods.
My g/f's car has the distinction of hitting two different deer in two states. The guy she bought it from hit one in Virginia and then she hit one in Michigan too.
I was driving on Route 119 outside of Morgantown, WV last year and I had several close calls in a span of 10 miles. A whole herd hopped across the narrow road.
I see them crossing I-79 too. Quite scary to be crusing at 70 mph and a deer darts across the freeway!
But the only deer I hit was just 25 miles up the road in Pennsylvania, outside of Carmichaels. Lots of deer there too.
I don't find it too surprising. Some of the top states are sparsely populated. That might mean people need to drive through rural areas more to get to where they're going and I think it'd still be fair to say deer are more common outside the major cities than in them.
Michigan might be surprising to me as I think it's fairly urban, but not too surprising.
Looking at the map it might be hard for me to determine the bottom five because some of the states are a bit scrunched up. The obvious bottom is Hawaii because deer aren't even native to Hawaii and I think most of the introduced animals to become pests are ones people could plausibly keep as pets or sell for some other reason. Anyway Arizona, California, Nevada, and Florida look like they might round out the bottom five of deer hits. I might be surprised California is so much lower than Oregon by the looks of it. Possibly it's that the population is so much bigger than the deer population and it's fairly urban. The others aren't surprising as such because deer I don't think go much for deserts or semi-tropical areas.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 10-06-2010 at 12:29 PM..
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bydand
Really surprised me Pennsylvania wasn't in that top 5 list. A drive down a freeway there and you see more deer taking a dirt nap on the shoulder of the road than any place I've been.
In 2007 I visited suburban Philadelphia because my aunt's husband died. I was surprised to see 5 deer grazing right off the Phila Beltway (I-476). Driving to the graveside service the hearse actually had to stop in the cemetery to let a small herd of does cross
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