The prime season for motor vehicle collisions with deer has just begun and newly released figures show the odds of running into one locally are up significantly.
St. Joseph County Police Chief Bill Thompson and LaPorte County Police Capt. Mike Kellems won't disagree with those numbers.
Thompson didn't have any St. Joseph County statistics, but said officer responses to deer collisions the past couple of years seem noticeably higher.
'That's accurate,' he said.
A report by State Farm Insurance cited data from claims and information from the government to compile figures that show the odds in Indiana of striking a deer in 2015 is one out of every 142 drivers. Last year, the odds were one out of every 172 drivers.
In Michigan, one out of every 97 drivers in 2015 are likely to have an encounter with a deer, according to the report, although that is better than a year ago when the figure was one in 72.
Thus far in 2015, Michigan is ranked 11th among all states in vehicle-deer accidents while Indiana is 23rd. The No. 1 state is West Virginia, where one in 44 drivers are likely to hit a deer.
The report also shows the number of collisions with deer in Indiana is up by more than 21 percent for the second consecutive year.