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 Photo provided: Terrance Cole, 37, of Van Wert, in the white shirt, is helped to shore after being pulled from Grand Lake St. Marys Friday afternoon. By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Managing Editor
CELINA — Two area men were pulled from the cold waters of Grand Lake St. Marys Friday afternoon. |
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Official Warns Of Deer |
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Friday, 09 October 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Staff Writer
WAPAKONETA — It’s the time of year when motorists need to keep their eyes open for at least one more hazard on the road.
“With farmers just now getting into the fields and bow season opening for hunters, the deer are moving,” Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Commander Lt. Scott Carrico said.
According to Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) statistics, fewer daylight hours combined with the increased movement of deer due to mating season increases the risk of collisions between deer and vehicles.
Updated ODOT safety statistics reveal motorists in rural and urban areas of the state need to watch out for dangerous — which can at times be deadly — crashes involving deer.
The concern increases even more as the seasons change from summer to fall, when the average number of deer-vehicle collisions typically jumps 200 percent from September to October.
“It’s what the majority of our crashes are right now,” Carrico said.
From Sept. 1 through Wednesday, the local post handled 16 deer crashes, one more than for the same period the previous year. Those crashes peak at 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., Carrico said.
Already this year, the Wapakoneta Post has reported that 127 of its total 418 crashes have been animal related.
The locations with the highest number of crashes have included U.S. 33, which had 12 deer crashes west of Wapakoneta; Interstate 75 with 11 of its 15 deer crashes between Wapakoneta and Cridersville; and Ohio 66, with eight of the crashes north of St. Marys and seven south of town.
Two of the worst places for deer to cross on I-75 are south of the Ohio 67 interchange and near mile marker 117, south of Cridersville, Carrico said.
“There have been injury crashes, a couple were severe and involved motorcycles,” Carrico said.
In 2008 in Auglaize County there were 196 animal-related crashes, with the three major routes where crashes occurred including I-75, U.S. 33 and Ohio 66.
Animal-related crashes can involve a variety of domestic and wild animals from dogs, horses and cattle to coyotes, birds and raccoons, in addition to deer.
Throughout the state there were 24,582 deer-vehicle crashes reported in 2008, resulting in six people killed and 1,127 injured.
Approximately half of the crashes occurred between the beginning of October and the end of December.
There were 5,176 deer crashes in just November of last year, averaging roughly 172 crashes each day.
The study also revealed that deer-vehicle crashes are not limited to rural areas of the state. The total number of deer crashes was highest in the Akron area with 601 and the Cincinnati area with 593 during 2008.
In Auglaize, Champaign, Clark, Darke, Logan, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery and Shelby counties there were 2,181 deer crashes reported with 77 injuries and three fatalities.
Since many deer-vehicle collisions go unreported to police and local authorities, the actual number of crashes throughout the state may be as high as 60,000 each year, ODOT estimated.
Carrico said deer often seen laying along the interstate were killed by self-insured commercial motorists who cracked something minor when they hit the deer and did not require a report for repairs.
If a vehicle hits a deer, motorists should report the crash by calling local law enforcement, even if there is no damage to the vehicle, according to ODOT.
When deer-vehicle crashes occur, deer carcasses must be moved from the main roadway to prevent further crashes.
In 2008, ODOT workers spent 30,060 hours handling 17,185 deer at a cost of $1.8 million to the state. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 02 November 2009 )
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