The number of accidents involving deer is surprisingly high, with statistics by the Deer Commission for Scotland indicating that there are as many as 10,000 road traffic accidents annually that involve a deer and, of those, two or three will lead to the death of the vehicle driver or a passenger. However, the number of injuries suffered will no doubt be considerably higher.
The Commission has announced that warning signs will be put up throughout the country to alert drivers of the dangers and Commission spokesman Jamie Hammond warned that the warnings should be taken seriously by all, warning “…people who live in and around towns think these warnings aren’t relevant to them, but in fact accidents rates are often higher in areas with more people and more cars on the road.
“Accidents certainly don’t only occur on rural roads in the Highlands”.
As a driver it is always important to be vigilant of potential hazards on the road and, admittedly, in urban areas you would expect the risk of hitting a pedestrian to be much higher than a deer and, indeed, a deer is not going to make a claim for personal injury against you! However, a passenger injured in your vehicle might well look to do so and so it is important that adequate care and attention is given by road users to possible hazards to make sure that accidents do not occur due to unexpected hazards.