COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho State Police officials are reviewing a case in which a 62-year-old North Idaho woman was cited for inattentive driving, a misdemeanor, after an accident with a deer on Highway 54 east of Athol.

"We're reviewing and making sure a proper investigation was conducted," ISP Sgt. Kevin White said Friday. "It's not typical protocol to cite a driver for an accident involving a wild animal."

He declined to discuss the reasoning for the citation.

"We'll look at all the aspects of the case," White said.

Bayview resident Sally Newcombe was driving westbound on the highway in her 2010 Subaru Legacy when the accident occurred on the morning of Feb. 13. The deer was killed.

The accident caused significant damage to the passenger-side front fender and headlight of her vehicle.

Newcombe declined to comment Friday, other than to say a petition has been started to support dismissal of the charge. The petition said the deer ran into her car.

An affidavit filed in court in Kootenai County by an ISP trooper said visibility and road conditions were good at the time of the accident.

To help drivers avoid collisions with wildlife, areas on both sides of the road had been "deforested" to improve motorists' visibility, the document said.

To the north of the roadway, where the deer would have come from in this case, the affidavit said travelers of the highway have "clear visibility" for nearly 220 feet.

The ISP trooper said Newcombe reported being familiar with the area and knew it was common for wildlife to cross the road.

"When I asked Newcombe when she first remembered seeing the deer, she said, 'I have no idea. All I saw was a head,'" the trooper wrote.

She continued by saying it was like the deer "dropped out of the sky," according to the affidavit.

Newcombe's attorney, Rex Finney of Sandpoint, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Friday. He did file documents in court saying his client is not guilty of the charge.

Finney filed a copy of a letter he received from State Farm Insurance agent John Langs of Bonners Ferry.

"My agency normally has about 50 deer-hit claims per year," Langs wrote in a March 8 letter.

Langs said he has been an agent for 36 years in Bonners Ferry.

"With some 1,800 deer hits, I have never encountered any of my customers getting a ticket for that event," he wrote.