In the seven days preceding Monday, the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office responded to 30 reported car-deer accidents. The week before that, it was 35.
“Right now is obviously busy with the farm fields coming off, cooler temps and hunters in the woods,” said Sheriff Michael Main in an email.
October, November and December are traditionally the biggest months for car-deer accidents, and they occur on top of the already existing workload for police. More than 75 percent of them take place between dusk and dawn on two-lane roads, according to the Michigan State Police.
“The actual paperwork is all electronic and can be done quickly but then there are waiting times for wreckers if they are needed,” Main said.
Last year, the sheriff’s office responded to 799 car-deer accidents, Main said.
The biggest conflict comes where dense populations of people mix with deer.
Deputies with the sheriff’s office have responded to 120 car-deer accidents in Union Township and 112 in Deerfield townships, Main said.
“Lots of cars in those areas,” he said.
In 2020, there were 162 car-deer crashes in Union Township and 116 in Deerfield Township, according to a data sheet from Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, a website from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
No other township had more than 80.
Car-deer crashes accounted for almost half of the county’s total number of crashes in 2020, 45 percent; or 983 of 2,171.
Deerfield was among the townships where car-deer crashes accounted for 71.6 percent of the township’s 162 total crashes last year. In fact, deer were involved in more than half the accidents in 13 townships.
Chippewa, Isabella and Union townships were the three that didn’t.
None of the county’s 10 accidents in which people died involved deer.
“The biggest safety tip is for people to slow down (first rule for any accident reduction tip),” Main said. “Other options are to make sure driver’s windshields are clear, drivers are concentrating on the road and their driver’s peripheral view.”
