A mother is driving through Quantico; her two young children are strapped into their car seats. She rounds the corner where Fuller Road turns into Barnett Avenue, right before Little Hall. Then, in an instant, a huge buck crashes through her front windshield. Still alive, the deer flails its antlers inside the car.
This situation may seem extreme, but it’s a true story. It happened 10 years ago but a collision with a deer can happen anytime. It’s a serious situation.
From October 2008 to date there have beenreported 32 deer hit by vehicles.
‘‘The actual number of deer hit is a least double that because people don’t report every hit,” said Staff Sgt. Jowa Wildes, the chief accident investigator at Provost Marshal’s Office.
‘‘The accidents are historically most prevalent on Russell Road, Fuller Road and Barnett Avenue,” said Timothy Stamps, the head of Quantico’s fish, wildlife and agronomy section.
Deer can appear anywhere on base. Deer have been found inside the car wash, Cash Sales and the barracks, Wildes said.
The base environmental affairs branch isdoing its part to help keep deer from being hitby vehicles.
‘‘We regulate with the hunting program,” Stamps said. ‘‘Archery season on mainside goes from Oct. 3, 2009 to Jan. 29, 2010, and archery west of Interstate 95 is from Oct. 3, 2009 to Jan. 2, 2010. Firearms are only allowed to hunt west of I-95 and the season is from Nov. 14, 2009, to Jan. 2, 2010. There are fewer accidents west of I-95 because we use firearms.”
To keep people aware of the presence of deer the fish, wildlife and agronomy section also put up signs on mainside of the deer counts, Stamps said. The signs are designed to get people’s attention so they slow down and be alert.
Drivers must be particularly attentive in the fall.
‘‘The deer are very active in the breeding season,” Stamps said. ‘‘The bucks are chasing after the does. You’ve got to realize that if you see one deer cross the road you’ve got to slow down because there are likely to be more. Motorcyclists, espe-cially, need to be wary.”
‘‘During the hunting season hunters walk through the woods and scare the deer onto the roads,” Wildes said.
When a deer is hit on the road and a driver wishes to claim it, the driver must go through the right procedures.
‘‘If you kill a deer you must wait for the accident investigators to get there,” said Euel J. Tritt, the U.S. conservation law enforcement officer on base. ‘‘Only if the deer is dead will the accident investigator contact the game warden who can release the deer to you if you want to harvest the meat.”
Practicing safe driving habits minimizes danger.
‘‘You should drive slower so there is less damage to your car and less chance of severe injury if you are hit by a deer,” Stamps said. ‘‘There is no reason why we can’t coexist.”
For that mother and her two children driving by Little Hall 10 years ago, coexistence was a little too close for comfort but in the end, no one was seriously injured. The next deer hit may not have a happy ending.
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