A deer crash on northbound Route 208 near Colonial Road in Franklin Lakes turned into a much bigger scene Tuesday morning when a second vehicle slammed into an empty police cruiser parked at the site and flipped over, trapping its driver inside. Two officers were hurt pulling that driver free, and the highway was closed while crews worked to clear the wreckage.
The chain of events began when a vehicle struck a deer on Route 208 north near Colonial Road, according to northjersey.com. Franklin Lakes police responded to investigate that initial collision, which involved only the one vehicle and the deer. While officers were working the scene, a second vehicle struck their unoccupied patrol car at 5:58 a.m. and overturned, per the same report. As Daily Voice first reported, the driver was alone in the vehicle and became trapped inside after it flipped.
Officers Hurt Freeing Trapped Driver
Two Franklin Lakes officers suffered minor injuries while extricating the driver from the overturned car, the report states. The driver, described as the vehicle's sole occupant, was taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not immediately known. Franklin Lakes police said the crash remained under investigation.
Responders flooded the scene to manage the wreck and the resulting road closure. The Franklin Lakes Fire Department, Wyckoff Police Department, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, MICCOM BLS and Valley Hospital ALS all assisted. All northbound traffic on Route 208 was diverted at Summit Avenue, and the roadway stayed closed until every vehicle involved had been removed from the scene.
Fall Is Peak Season for Deer on New Jersey Roads
The initial deer strike fits a well-documented seasonal pattern. More than 43% of all New Jersey deer crashes occur between September and November, according to AAA Northeast, with November alone accounting for a fifth of them as white-tail deer mating season peaks between October and November. The state logged a record 11,692 deer crashes in 2025, nearly 2% above the previous high, and 64,780 total deer crashes between 2020 and 2025 that included more than 4,252 injury crashes and 15 fatalities.
Bergen County, where Tuesday's crash occurred, ranked fifth statewide with 828 deer-related crashes in 2025, trailing Morris County's 937, according to the AAA data cited by northjersey.com. Statewide figures also show drivers who struck deer directly were injured just 4.5% of the time, compared with more than 27% in evasive crashes in which drivers swerved and struck another vehicle, tree, pole, guardrail or other object, a split that underscores why safety officials generally advise against swerving. Separate reporting from nj.com notes that the end of Daylight Saving Time compounds the risk each fall, since more commuters end up driving in the dark when deer are most active.
A Pattern of Secondary Crashes on Route 208
A Pattern of Secondary Crashes on Route 208 Tuesday's pileup is not the first time a deer-related incident on Route 208 has triggered a second, more serious collision. In a Route 208 incident, a state Department of Transportation worker removing a deer carcass from the highway was struck after a Toyota RAV4 rear-ended a state-owned vehicle near Harristown Road, according to a report from Daily Voice at the time. And just over a week before Tuesday's crash, a 69-year-old Galloway woman was killed when a deer struck by one vehicle collided with the car she was driving, nj.com reported.
New Jersey Department of Transportation crews alone removed 5,770 deer carcasses from state highways in 2023, and AAA has tracked thousands of live-animal crashes each fall, with 6,263 in October and 8,831 in November from 2019 through 2023. Franklin Lakes police have not released further details on the cause of Tuesday's secondary crash or the condition of the driver who was hospitalized.
