Drivers warned to look out for deer on N.J. roads

This is the peak of the deer-mating season in New Jersey, and they’re causing plenty of accidents.

Carole Stanko, a biologist with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, said there are more deer along roads in areas where hunters are not permitted.

“Suburban communities where deer are allowed to proliferate and actually have really high-quality food in the source of horticultural plantings, which are fertilized, those are the problematic areas and those are where the people with the cars are also” Stanko said.

So far this year, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has collected more than 4,700 deer that were killed when struck by a vehicle. Officials expect the final toll will rival last year’s count of about 6,000 by the end of the mating season in January.

Transportation Department spokesman Joe Dee cautions that deer often travel in herds; if you see one run across the road, more may follow.

State Farm Insurance says the damage caused to a vehicle from hitting a deer averages about $3,100.