Deer are a major hazard to drivers in the UK with car insurance companies forking out around £21 million a year because of the estimated 75,000 collisions.

Breakdown service Autonational Rescue (AS) said that estimates did not count the number of animals that had crawled off the road after being hit and subsequently died.

AS is therefore welcoming the 'Deer Vehicle Collisions' project, which will more accurately record data on deer collisions.

Ronan Hart, marketing manager at AS, said: "We need to know the scale of the problem in the UK's countryside…previously there was no system for central registration of road accidents involving deer."

He said that most of the accidents occurred in the winter when there was poor visibility due to rain and fog.

Most of the collisions happen in England with the New Forest being a notorious black-spot and cause "expensive damage to cars, human injuries and even deaths".

Deer have been known, in extreme cases, to go through car windscreens.

The project to collate data is backed by the Highways Agency.

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