Drivers, beware: November is peak season for deer mating — and for deer crossing roads.
AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Maryland State Highway Administration are warning drivers to slow down and look for deer, which are now in “rut” — mating season.
“They’re in the full throes of passion in November,” AAA Mid-Atlantic’s John Townsend said. “You have to be especially careful. The hours that they’re most passionate are the same hours that we commute, the morning hour and evening rush hour.”
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One in 109 Virginia drivers are likely to hit a deer this year, and one in 119 drivers in Maryland, according to statistics released last month from State Farm Insurance.
Virginia ranks 12th on the list of states where drivers are most likely to hit a deer, and Maryland ranks 13th, according to State Farm. The District ranks 46th in hitting deer.
Those numbers put the Washington area on track for 80,000 deer-vehicle crashes per year, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.
Nationally, deer-related car crashes cost $4.6 billion a year in vehicle damage and medical expenses, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
To bring crash numbers down, local governments, including Fairfax County, are allowing bow hunting of deer on county property.
For drivers, the Maryland State Highway Administration said, the key to avoiding a crash is to “never veer for deer.”
“A lot of the crashes occur when animals cross the road because people turn at a very sharp rate,” said administration spokesman Charlie Gischlar. “If you do that, you may not strike the animal, but you may strike a telephone pole or go into a ditch or go head-on with somebody.”
Eric Huppert, who bow hunts deer in Northern Virginia as president of Suburban Whitetail Management, said deer in November are too focused on mating to pay attention to cars.
“The does come into heat, and the bucks get crazy in the head. The bucks are chasing the does, because they want to breed with them, and the does are running away because they’re not quite ready yet. And that’s where you have these accidents come about,” Huppert said. “It’s definitely a dangerous time of year.”
