Deer sprinting across a road (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

13 November 2025

Speaking of darting into traffic, as I did yesterday regarding squirrels, November and December are the peak months in Pennsylvania for deer-vehicle collisions. Deer are in the rut (breeding) and not paying attention to anything except the opposite sex. In addition they prefer to move at dawn and dusk, and that’s when we’re driving because sunset is so early (5:04pm today).

The Post-Gazette pointed out on 9 November:

Pennsylvania, consistently among the worst for collisions between wildlife and vehicles, has seen crashes due to deer rising over the past five years, with 6,426 such collisions in 2024, per data from PennDOT.

And, beware, this week could add mightily to 2025’s tally.

“The peak of the rut in Pennsylvania is between the 12th and the 18th of November. It’s the worst time to be driving,” said Don Wagner, the deer unit manager at Penn State University in State College.

Sometimes you don’t even have to be in the car for a deer to crash into it.

video short embedded from DailyDoseofTheInternet on YouTube

There are 8 tips for avoiding a collision with deer in this 3 minute video.

The biggest tip is DON’T SWERVE. It will only make the crash worse!