Cars and deer are colliding at an alarming rate across the country, and Kentucky is no exception.

November is the peak month for such collisions.

Denny Trease takes a closer look at the numbers.

If you're driving down the road at 55 miles per hour, and suddenly collide with a 250 deer, repairing your car is going to get expensive.

Small end ranging from $1,500 all the way to five or six thousand.

A lot of the tendency when you hit a deer is front end impact, and then the deer will actually hit the roof.

State Farm, the nation's largest auto insurer says it's animal collision claims have gone up 15% in the last 5 years, and deer collisions always spike in November.

It's because November is the peak of the deer breeding season. That's when bucks are chasing does. That's when deer are more active, they're more mobile, and that's going to increase the odds of vehicle collision.

Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show since 1993, 47 Kentucky drivers have died as a result of colliding with a large animal, which in the bluegrass could certainly include horses or cows, but there's no arguing the fact that deer are a major highway safety hazard.

The deer population across the country is generally increasing. Many areas are seeing increasing numbers of people moving out to rural areas, more cars are on the roads, less area is open to hunting, so you've kind of got a recipe for more collisions. Hunting is our best and in some cases our only option for reducing deer numbers. Fewer deer is going to insure fewer collisions.

On the road and on the lookout, Denny Trease, WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST.

State Farm recommends to its policy holders not to suddenly swerve if they see they're about to hit a deer because that often results in a more serious accident.