Those with the lowest were Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Buncombe, Swain and Mecklenburg. Half happened on county and local roads, a quarter on state roads, and only a small percentage on U.S. routes and interstates and in towns. Almost three-fourths occurred between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Still, we recommend that people drive slower at night where deer are likely to be, and if you see one run across the road, slow down because usually others are in the vicinity. N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles' records are especially valuable because they enable researchers to study police narratives via computer and thus discover recurring driving problems, he said.
Few states have such good computerized records.
North Carolina's deer population now stands at about 900,000, according to Carl Betsill, research and regulation section manager at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. In 1910, only 10,000 deer roamed the state, and in 1975, there were about 250,000. Besides the 175,000 deer taken by hunters in 1997, unknown thousands of others die after being hit by cars and trucks, Betsill said. In a lot of accidents, deer are not killed and often not even injured. Normally gregarious bucks become aggressive and territorial during the fall rut, driving away younger bucks.