Why won’t Johnson put up deer signs?

It's 8:30 p.m., and another deer has just been hit in front of our house - the third in a year. After the second hit, in August, I contacted Johnson County secondary road department about putting up a deer-crossing sign. They referred me to the Johnson County supervisors.

I received a short reply from a traffic engineer who wrote that studies have shown that people don't pay attention to signs, and thus they don't believe in putting them up. In fact, there is only one deer-crossing sign in all of Johnson County.

Interestingly, if I drive on Interstate 380, I see a lot of deer-crossing signs. The same holds true in Cedar, Iowa and Polk counties. Why is Johnson County so reluctant to put them up?

The driver just hit in front of our house was lucky; it was a carload of kids. I then went to join another car that had pulled over where the deer had been hit. The deer was still alive, struggling, and the driver was trying to find someone to come put it out of its misery. Together, she and I watched the deer die.

I agree that people get used to the signs on roads they travel frequently, but it seems to me that a sign seems like such a small thing to do that could have a large potential impact.

Shawn Flanagan

Oxford