Deer, drivers vying for road right of way: Motorists urged to take caution as mating season has animals on the move.

When Reno County Sheriff's Detective Diana Skomal refers to her deer season, it's personal.

She hit "two or three deer" one season, Skomal recalled.

On Friday, Skomal's own vehicle was in the shop for repairs to the grill and bumper after an encounter with a deer earlier this month on Pleasant Valley Road.

Mating season for deer prompts annual warnings to motorists from various public agencies -- and insurance companies -- to be alert to the possibility of a deer suddenly leaping out of a ditch and racing across the road.

The Reno County Sheriff's Department log on Friday showed, on average, a vehicle-deer accident nearly once a day during October. The Hutchinson Police Department log listed two such accidents this month in city limits, on East 43rd Avenue and on South Bonebrake Street.

"I used to think you could see them coming," Skomal said. But vehicle-deer accidents are likely to occur at dawn or dusk, when fog or a setting sun hinder visibility.

"There's not a lot you can do," she said.

Skomal recommended motorists: Pay full attention to the road; observe traffic laws; don't abruptly swerve if a deer darts out, because that could lead to a worse accident; and report the collision to law enforcement.

The Kansas Highway Patrol has urged motorists to note deer-crossing signs because they are posted where such collisions have occurred repeatedly. Also, deer usually move in groups, so a motorist spotting one deer should be prepared for more deer.

Last year, deer-vehicle collisions in Kansas accounted for more fatalities -- six -- than in any other year during the previous decade, according to statistics provided by the Kansas Department of Transportation.

In some counties in the state's south-central and southwest regions, deer accidents on the road represented one-third or one-half of the total number of vehicle accidents, according to KDOT's statistics for 2008.

In Pawnee County, 61 percent of all the vehicle accidents last year were deer-related.

American Family Insurance reported its Kansas customers filed a total of 2,246 vehicle damage claims from "animal-hit" accidents in 2008.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. took a map of the U.S. and plugged in vehicle-deer accidents and vehicle registrations to project the likelihood of a collision. In Kansas, classified as a medium-risk state, there was a 1-in-204 likelihood of any one vehicle colliding with a deer, according to the insurer.

That calculation gave West Virginia the unenviable ranking as offering the greatest likelihood for a deer-vehicle accident. The state with the least likely chance for an encounter? Hawaii.