I question why the shooter was not able to identify his target appropriately before pulling the trigger. Any responsible hunter will confirm his target, and where's he's shooting, before pulling the trigger.
Depending on the location, 5pm may well have been too late to hunt, but I've not hunted that far north. I know when I went hunting last week, at about 5:15, I was no longer confident in my ability to make out a target, so I packed up and went home. It's just not worth a risk (and I was the only hunter on the 10 acre prpoerty).
A sad lesson was learned here. My heart goes out to both families.
As for deer-related traffic accidents, there are something like 250,000 deer-vs-vehicle accidents every year. Even with hunting, the deer population is on the rise. Why? For one, a lack of natural predators. I see far more deer than I do wolves or coyotes, for example. Here in Virginia, hunters can only take 6 per season, and many of them must be does (in hopes of slowing population growth). It's gotten to the point where overpopulation has not only caused malnourishment in the deer (some I've seen are just emaciated), but what food they do find they strip bare. My county opened up a special bow-hunting season in some of the local parks to try and curb the destruction.
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