Exploring the past at Quiet Valley

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First Posted: 9/18/2014 The doe took a nervous look up the road as I slowed down and then quickly darted across the blacktop.
As I stopped, a small buck appeared where the doe had stood and simply meandered into the roadway without a glance.
Fortunately there wasn&#8217;t any other traffic and the buck crossed safely, albeit carelessly.
Still, the buck&#8217;s approach to crossing a road served as an example of why there are so many roadkills in Pennsylvania.
And all of the blame can&#8217;t be pinned on deer.
Every year State Farm Insurance releases a report outlining the risk of hitting a deer in each state.
We&#8217;re second.
According to the report, 1-in-71 Pennsylvania drivers will hit a deer this year, up 7.8 percent from 2013. Only West Virginia had a higher rate with 1-in-39.
But there&#8217;s more.
State Farm&#8217;s report states that Pennsylvania accounts for 10 percent of all deer-vehicle collisions in the United States. There were a total of 123,941 collisions in Pennsylvania over a 12-month span ending on June 30 of this year.
Driving on Pennsylvania roads is risky business, and the likelihood of striking a deer will increase this fall when the rut kicks in and bucks become even more careless.
Many blame development of rural areas - which pushes deer into smaller woodlots and requires them to move more, as a big reason behind the accidents. Pennsylvania also has a lot of roads, which doesn&#8217;t help.
There is nothing worse than seeing roadkilled wildlife litter our roadways. It&#8217;s as wasteful as poaching and in some instances the incidents are avoidable.
How?
By slowing down.
Common sense dictates where drivers are more likely to encounter deer, and when. Rural roads that traverse the state&#8217;s mountains and farmlands are obviously high-risk areas, and the chances of encountering a deer increase at dawn and dusk, and in the fall.
There&#8217;s no need to blast through such areas with reckless abandon.
And if you do spot a deer crossing the road, slow down even more and wait. There often are more deer behind it and they always seem to make a run for it after the first one crosses.
Deer do unpredictable things. Sometimes they stop in the middle of the road when crossing. Sometimes they cross and quickly re-cross back from where they came. Sometimes they move toward an approaching vehicle. Assume nothing. Slow down; blow your horn to urge the deer to leave the road. Stop if the deer stays on the road and don&#8217;t try to go around it. It will move eventually.
While the fall is a prime time for deer movement as does feed and mature bucks become careless during the rut, younger bucks are also on the move.
Research conducted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission on deer movement showed that most yearling bucks break away from the areas in which they were born and will travel several miles - some as much as 40, searching for new areas. This movement occurs from mid-October through November.
Sure, there are times when collisions with deer are unavoidable. But there are plenty of things drivers can do to lessen the chances, and it all starts by slowing down.

Deer aren’t always to blame for vehicle collisions