The Greene County Sheriff’s office has recently seen a growing number of car vs deer accidents.

Sheriff Steve Haupert says from Friday through Monday there were five accidents that involved a single-vehicle and a deer on the roadway.  He states that deer can be unpredictable and sometimes they can run into vehicles as much as vehicles run into them when deer are crossing the roadway.

He believes deer crossing the roadway are prevalent during harvest season in Iowa because farm machinery are causing the deer to be on the move instead of sleeping at night.

Haupert says stick to the old saying when encountering deer on the roadway.

“Don’t veer for those deer.  It’s inevitable, at some point, you’re going to see it and you’re going to hit it.  But it’s more dangerous to veer into someone else’s lane of traffic than it is to just try and brake as immediately as you can and minimize the damage when the deer does hit or you hit the deer.”

The damage in a deer-car accident is less much than if you drive your vehicle into a ditch or cause a multiple-vehicle accident.