MARKLE, Ind. — Five deer that wandered onto a highway overpass jumped to their deaths onto Interstate 69, one of them crashing through a tractor-trailer’s windshield, police said.

After the animals’ fatal plunge, their mangled carcasses littered the expressway to the horror of motorists who approached Friday’s scene in the northbound lanes of I-69.

Wells County EMS paramedic Andy Stimpson said he wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he arrived at the crash scene at the U.S. 224 overpass about 20 miles southwest of Fort Wayne.

“It’s the weirdest run I’ve ever had in 28 years,” he said.

John Salb, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said the deer may have been spooked by cars as they were crossing the overpass and jumped from the overpass, not knowing that a busy highway was far below them.

The 20- to 30-foot fall killed all five deer about 12:30 p.m. Friday, said Brian Jenks, a dispatcher with the Huntington County Sheriff’s Department.

The last of the five deer went through the windshield of a tractor-trailer rig, but the driver was not injured, police said.

Late fall is a stressful time of year for deer as hunters push through fields and woods, hoping to scare deer out of their cover, said DNR spokesman Phil Bloom said.

Farmers are also removing the last of their crops from the fields, reducing the animals’ food supply even as deer breeding season is in full swing.

Any of these factors could have pushed the deer onto the highway overpass, Bloom said.

The I-69/U.S. 224 interchange is a likely spot for wildlife and humans to collide. The west side of the interchange is bordered by privately owned fields and the Markle State Recreation area, which is popular with hunters, Jenks said.

The east side of the interchange, an area that’s heavy with traffic, marks the edge of the town of Markle.