Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Columbia County ties record with 472 deer-vehicle accidents

See deer on the highways? Be careful!

Columbia County passed a dubious milestone today by tying its 2003 all-time record for deer-vehicle accidents, with more than six weeks left in the year.

"As of today, we have tied the record number of 472 for deer strikes in Columbia County," said Emergency Services Director Pam Tucker. "Please continue to watch for deer on our roadways."

Whitetail deer are Georgia's most popular game animal, and despite hunting that trims the state's population by more than 350,000 each fall, the herd repopulates each year to about 1 million animals.

Fall and early winter are the most active time for deer movement due to mating season and changing food sources.

During 2007, the county recorded 394 deer strikes.

State Farm Insurance, which tracks deer accidents nationwide, ranks Georgia as a medium risk state, and South Carolina as a high risk state, based on a formula that includes deer population, insurance claims and the number of registered motor vehicles. The average property damage cost of these incidents was just over $2,950, up 2.5 percent from a year ago, State Farm reported on its Web site.

Comments

realistineducation

guess all the bubba's can't afford to go deer hunting , now that the bush economy is in the toilet.

Ole School

all the bubbas? be careful some of us " bubbas " have our masters !

DEVGRU

Us "Bubbas" will survive whether Bush's economy is in the toilet or not.

vinnydelicious

After hitting a deer myself, I'm convinced anyone who is a member of PETA just hasn't had a deer run out in front of their car yet. Get busy hunters!

jab0226

Whats amazing is that out here in the dessert,people are standing in line to get in a lottery just to be able to hunt deer. Ha Ha funny, I will show them this article.Being a Columbia County homeowner, now living out west it is amazing to see that the population of deer is up. Well,I guess its no suprise all of the building that has happened since we have left. They are confused and have nowhere to go.

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