Jackson County Has High Rate of Deer-Car Accidents - WLNS TV 6 Lansing - Jackson | Your Local News Leader

With the kick-off of opening day, often comes the concern with deer on the move causing traffic accidents. Numbers from State Farm show Michigan has some of the highest rates of car-deer accidents in the nation.

Inside the state, Jackson County has the fiftth highest number of car deer accidents.

"It's probably the most common call we get this time of year, especially with opening day being [Thursday]. The deer are moving because there's so many people in the woods. So we see an increase especially around dawn and dusk," said Captain Brad Piros with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. "They're running where the don't normally run and so they're trying to get away from whatever is scaring them. But obviously, there's a lot of fields and woods, so anywhere you have highways by those particular areas, we tend to have a lot of increased crashes."

Jackson has a similar landscape to much of Michigan, but Piros says a lot ot people make the drive there to hunt, causing an increase in deer crashes. 

To avoid hitting a deer, watch out during those peak hours of dawn and dusk and if you see one, slow down because there's probably more with it.  

Jackson County dispatch recorded only one call for a car-deer collision since the start of opening day.

Other high risk counties are Kent, Oakland, Calhoun and Montcalm.