Wake sees more deer-related crashes than other NC counties

A local man knows roads can be more dangerous this time of year after a deer crossing the road caught him off guard one year ago.

More commuters drive in darkness in the fall when deer are more likely to catch them off guard. Around 10:30 p.m. on a fall evening, 20-year-old Ryan Hayworth was just a few miles from his Zebulon home.

He had hunted deer before, but on that night the deer came to him.

"It was kind of like a flash -- it came out of the woods going full speed," said Hayworth. "He hit right here -- the impact right in the body."

It shattered the headlight, bent the front frame and rolled underneath Hayworth's pickup truck.

"It definitely shook me up a little bit-- just mentally," said Hayworth.

The danger increases as temperatures cool down because deer are on the move, mating and foraging for food

Steve Abbott, the Director of Public Information with the N.C. Department of Transportation, said drivers need to be more aware.

"Dusk and dawn are when they are most active," he said.

According to Abbott, there were more than a dozen deer related fatalities on North Carolina roads last year. In three years, there have been 54,000 animal-related crashes. For each of the past 15 years, those crashes have occurred in Wake County more than anywhere else in the state.

"It's because we have that unique combination of a lot of traffic and a lot of roads -- but we still have a lot of woods in Wake County," he said.

Abbott says, often, drivers can see deer eyes glow in reflecting headlights.

They typically cross roads one after the other, although the deer Hayworth encountered was a loner. "You can't really see him at all from the road when he's back here in the woods," said Hayworth, who is glad he remembered his dad's advice not to swerve. "It's better to hit the deer than it is to swerve off the road and maybe crash the car into a tree or a ditch or hit another vehicle."