The state just spent $1,441,000 building a fence to keep wild deer and bighorn sheep off a local highway.

But our investigation found not only did the Washington State Department of Transportation fail to finish the project, but the incomplete barrier might make the situation more dangerous for you and your family.

Each year, vacationers head up Highway 97A near Wenatchee on their way to Lake Chelan. Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne found an 8 mile stretch of that road is one of the most accident-filled in all of Washington.

Large animals and cars violently collide on a regular basis. This investigation looked at how the state’s current solution is seriously flawed.

Mule deer roam the hills at sunrise and sunset most days above Highway 97A, while bighorn sheep romp near the road at all hours.

The first phase of a $1.4 million wildlife control fence is supposed to keep them from getting hit by cars. It runs 3-3/4 miles, ending in an open field, instead of at a nearby natural rock barrier.

We shot video of deer tracks in the snow which clearly shows animals have already figured out how to still get down to the highway by simply walking around the shortened state fence.

“I thought, ''Oh my God!' and the next thing I knew, I was hitting, T-boning a very large buck deer," accident victim John Sandstrom told KIRO Team 7 Investigators.

Sandstrom totaled his Lexus around Thanksgiving along a portion of Highway 97A where a second million-dollar stretch of fence was scheduled for construction, but was never started.

He wonders how taxpayers spent so much money to possibly make matters worse.

"The fence that was built there, but because of the opening that was left in the fence, it was acting as a funnel for the animals.”

Wenatchee-based State Trooper Rich Magnussen says it's too early to conclude that the incomplete fence is funneling animals onto certain parts of the road. He admits it would be a safer if the state hadn't stopped construction where it did.

“These are good-sized animals, so they can cause substantial damage to a car and sometimes we see too that the driver reaction causes them to swerve and roll which causes injuries and damage, so it’s a problem,” says Magnussen.

If the state's plan was to make this highway safer for drivers, so far they've missed the mark. The Department of Transportation failed to put fence at the statistically most likely animal crossing.

Team 7 Investigators pulled roadside carcass collection reports from 2003 to 2008, (plus state patrol accident reports).

According to DOT documents, the first million-dollar fence was built from milepost 208 to about 212. We checked and found the total number of deer and sheep killed in all four of those miles was 80.

We found a much higher number of kills between mileposts 206 and 207.

Records show 114 animal-vehicle incidents in that 1 mile stretch near Wenatchee. This is where the state has so far failed to build a barrier yet.

Wildlife biologist Dave Volsen says a completed fence will save both human and animal lives, but not until the entire structure gets erected, probably in 2011. Budget cuts forced the delay of the second section.

Volsen told Halsne, “We anticipate that will get finished off because we know that if we give those animals enough time, they will exploit the ends of the fence and learn how to get around it to get access to things they're drawn to on the other side of the roadway.”

Another solution, one the state has not permanently addressed, is to lower the speed limit there. The current warning signs say Bighorn sheep crossing, Deer Migration, and High Kill Area - none of which actually tell drivers to slow down. That's something John Sandstrom would like changed.

“Traffic is moving along there at 60 to 62 miles per hour. At those speeds, you can't react. If I was going 30 miles an hour or 25 miles an hour, certainly there would have been a whole lot less damage and a lot more time to react.”

Although there is no data yet to bear this out, Fish and Game experts believe the portion of the fence that is complete is helping reduce the number of bighorn sheep from getting killed. However, collision records show the vast majority of animal-car accidents involve deer, not sheep.