More people are getting into crashes with wildlife in Colorado

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the number of wildlife-related collisions in Colorado has been steadily rising over the past four years.

In 2016, CPW data shows more than 4,600 deer were killed on Colorado highways. This is a significant jump from 2013 when less than 3,000 deer died the same way. 

Just in the Denver metro area, there were 425 animal-related collisions last year, 301 of which involved deer. The same region saw 338 collisions in 2015 and only 239 the year before that.

Not surprisingly, most of these occurred in the foothills. CPW says the highway where most of them occurred was on US 285 between Conifer and the CO 470 interchange. I-70 between Genesee Park and Denver and I-25 from Castle Rock to Castle Pines also saw several collisions. 

Southwest Colorado and Northwest Colorado saw the largest number of collisions last year, accounting for a total of 4,151 of the 6,858 reported collisions in 2016. 

Read the full story from our news partners at 9News.

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