WASHINGTON – Cars and motorcycles crash into deer more than 4,000 times a day, and it’s taking an increasingly deadly toll – on people.

In 2003, a record 210 motorists were killed in collisions with animals, mostly deer. That was 40 more than 2002 and more than twice the number in 1993, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In Washington state, collisions with animals killed four people in 2003. None were killed in 1993.

Accidents are most likely to happen in November, because hunters are out and deer are in the middle of their mating season, both of which cause the animals to stay on the move. Crashes are most likely to occur at evening or nighttime, often on rural roads with speed limits of 55 mph or higher.

“The deer population is growing, and there are more vehicles on the road every year,” Allan Williams, the institute’s chief scientist, said Wednesday. “There’s just a lot more chance for interaction with animals on the roads.”

Deer are involved in about 75 percent of fatal animal-crash accidents. In all, there were 1.5 million deer crashes last year, injuring 13,713 people and causing $1.1 billion in vehicle damage, the institute said.

The study found that most animal crashes involved one vehicle, and deaths usually were caused when the vehicle left the road or a motorcyclist was knocked off the bike. In relatively few cases, people were killed when the animal went through the windshield.

Other animals that cause crashes include horses, moose, dogs, bears, cats and opossums, though none was responsible for a significant number in 2003.

Motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable, especially when the rider isn’t wearing a helmet. In the institute’s analysis of fatal crashes in nine states, 65 percent of the 60 motorcyclists and all-terrain vehicle riders killed weren’t wearing helmets.

The same study found 60 percent of the vehicle occupants killed in animal crashes weren’t wearing seat belts.

Associated Press

A driver stops for a deer Monday on Route 88 in Wheeling, W.Va.