Kamikaze deer attacks on the rise

"My Headlight After a Deer Encounter." Photo by Flickr user joanna8555.

Sometimes, the deer really are out to get you, the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reported on Sunday:

Solon "Stevie" Tsangaras was driving back from a music gig near the hamlet of Andes, in Delaware County, early on the morning of Sept. 11, when he says a deer "attacked" his car. "I'm going slowly down this road, one I don't know well, when I glance out my driver's side window. This deer looks at me, takes off, runs parallel to the car, passes my car, then turns around and charges me."

Deer-car collisions are up 21% in the past five years, the story goes on to report. Your chances of hitting a deer in New York State these days? About 1 in 145.

To put those odds in perspective, consider this: The chances of winning $100,000 in a dealership sweepstakes going on right now in Oneonta is 1 in half a million, according to the contest's fine print.