Monmouth County Top in NJ for Deer Accidents

Where in New Jersey are the most deer struck by cars? Yup, you guessed it: Beautiful, wooded — and densely populated — Monmouth County.

Autumn is usually peak time for deer to be struck by cars, and especially right now, mid November, as it’s mating or rutting season.

NJ.com got numbers from the state Department of Transportation (DOT), which counts every deer carcass they remove from state roads and highways.

Monmouth County is the worst in the state for deer accidents, with the DOT removing 642 dead deer as of Oct. 31, according to the report.

Rural Hunterdon County is right behind, with 613 carcasses removed. And Somerset County is third worst with 558 deer removed so far this year.

Where in New Jersey are the fewest deer hit? That title goes to urban Hudson County, where so far this year DOT workers picked up only one dead deer.

Cape May County is next, where the DOT picked up just 3 deer as of Oct. 31.

The state DOT usually removes about 7,000 deer each year from roads it maintains, according to NJ.com. But those numbers do not include local roads, county roads and private roads. And those numbers also don’t include deer hit that don’t die. In actuality, the number of total deer hit by drivers in New Jersey is estimated to be around 25,000 a year. Some peg it even higher, at 50,000 deer-car collisions per year. Read the whole article here.

Photo credit: MorgueFile