The coinciding mating and gun-hunting seasons have pushed deer out of their hiding places and onto Wisconsin roadways, officials say.
“This time of year in broad daylight you can strike a deer because of the mating season — they’re too busy thinking about other things,” said State Patrol Sgt. Steve Tape.
The increasing number of deer-car accidents means more money for repair shop owners.
“We’re swamped. We’re booked up for a month and a half,” said Dave Suchon, owner of Dave’s Body Shop in Stevens Point.
The average cost of repairs for deer damage to a car is $3,500 at Dave’s, Suchon said.
There were 19,447 reported car-deer crashes in Wisconsin last year, 460 more than the year before, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in Thursday’s editions. Two people were killed in such accidents, the paper said.
The number of car-deer crashes will continue to increase as more motorists drive more miles and more deer roam the state, authorities say.
“It’s an epidemic. That’s the word I would use,” said Don Waller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of botany and environmental studies, who has researched the impact of a growing deer population in Wisconsin for nine years.
