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Friday, December 11, 1998 Page: 1B
No accident is acceptable
There can be no solace for the families of those who are victims of fatal
deer hunting accidents, and there have been three reported in Pennsylvania so
far this yearNeil M. Jespersen’s son was finally old enough to get a license
and go deer hunting.
Jespersen, 34, eagerly took his boy to the Columbia County deer woods early
on the opening morning of buck season.
But the inexperienced, 12-year-old hunter stumbled and fell. His firearm
accidentally, inconceivably discharged.
The elder Jespersen, who was from Bloomsburg, was killed when a bullet from
his son’s gun struck him in the neck.
John L. Schultz, 17, from Wellsville, also died on the first day of buck
season. Schultz was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head while
deer hunting in Potter County.
Darren Coleman was killed by a stray bullet on buck season’s second day.
Coleman, 34, was caught in a crossfire in Lycoming County, north of
Williamsport.
The deaths in the first two days of buck season tend to make one fidgety
about the prospects of going deer hunting.
Last year’s hunting accident record gave cause for hope that gunners were
becoming more careful than ever.
Only one hunter died in the state and 20 others were injured by gunfire in
the traditional deer firearms seasons last year, according to the Pennsylvania
Game Commission.
The one death in 1997 was one too many, but in 1996, five hunters died and
26 others were injured during the deer seasons.
Five hunters also died from gunfire in 1991 and 1988 during the buck and
antlerless seasons.
Pennsylvania hunters have averaged 2.8 fatal and 26.9 non-fatal deer
hunting accidents per year for the last 10 years, according to the commission.
This accident rate should serve as a call to arms for hunters to take
aggressive measures to avert all hunting accidents. It should not suggest
that, overall, hunting is overtly dangerous.
Last year’s accident rate translates into .09 fatal accidents per 100,000
hunters.
Compare that to National Safety Council statistics that indicate 16.1 fatal
automobile accidents occurred per 100,000 drivers nationwide in 1997.
There is some satisfaction to be gained from knowing that the hunting
accident rate has plummeted compared to what it was 43 years ago.
Deep red-and-black-plaid wool hunting outfits were the norm back when a ’55
Chevy was the hot car to own. And most country kids then were expected to
intuitively know how to hunt and capably handle a deer rifle.
Now, fluorescent orange requirements and a mandatory, 10-hour hunter
education training program for new hunters have made the ’90s woods safer.
Consider a yearly average of nine hunters killed and 51 injured from
gunfire while hunting deer in the 1950s, and that was with up to 200,000 fewer
hunters entering the Pennsylvania whitetail woods.
Carelessness. Stupidity. Boldness. Negligence. The list of reasons why
hunting accidents occur is almost endless.
And I suspect there is an endless string of poor excuses why these and
other unacceptable attitudes and behaviors sometimes prevail.
The bottom line is there should be no tolerance for those conditions and
demeanors that could lead to a hunting accident.
There’s little question that deer hunting is becoming safer.
Statistics prove it.
But don’t try consoling the families of the three hunters who died on the
first days of buck season with that kind of