The state Insurance Commissioner and Acting State Police Commissioner yesterday noted that we are moving into an even more dangerous time of the year than normal for collisions between deer and vehicles, highlighting that not only did the number of deer-related accidents increase last year, but so did the number of injuries and fatalities.
There were 5,674 deer-related accidents in 2017. That was 206 more than the year before. Fatalities rose from thirteen to seventeen. There were two people killed in Westmoreland, Blair, and Bradford counties, and one each in Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Clearfield, Erie, Fulton, Philadelphia, Pike, Somerset, and York.
There were 62 reported deer-related crashes in Indiana County last year, down from 75 in 2016. There were fifteen people injured and no fatalities. In the last five years, there have been two fatalities in the county in 257 deer-related crashes, both of them in 2013.
The months when deer crashes occur most frequently, in order, are November, October, and December, which coincides with the rut, the deer breeding season.
