Deer vs. car: How your state ranks

Drivers in West Virginia are most likely to strike a deer, a new insurance company survey says.

By MSN Money Partner Oct 23, 2012 6:52PM

This post comes from Des Toups at partner site CarInsurance.com.

If you're a West Virginia driver, there's a 1 in 40 chance you'll strike a deer in the next 12 months, according to data gathered by State Farm.

The company released its annual tally of deer-car collisions Tuesday.

You're safest in Hawaii, where the odds of a collision are 1 in 6,801 -- approximately the chances of being struck by lightning, the insurance company notes.

For the year ending June 30, the company projects 1.23 million collisions, one for every 171 drivers in the U.S. That's a 7.7% increase over the prior year.

The average deer-collision claim was $3,305, the insurer said. Of course, you're covered only if you've bought comprehensive insurance.

The 10 states with the highest chances of a deer collision are:

Ranking	State	Projected collisions	Chance of collision
1	West Virginia	30,203	1 in 39.9
2	South Dakota	8,863	1 in 68.0
3	Iowa	30,117	1 in 71.9
4	Michigan	97,856	1 in 72.4
5	Pennsylvania	115,571	1 in 75.6
6	Montana	9,576	1 in 77.7
7	Wisconsin	52,525	1 in 78.7
8	Minnesota	41,165	1 in 79.7
9	Arkansas	20,281	1 in 102.5
10	Virginia	52,369	1 in 103.2

You can see the 50-state list and tips for avoiding this hooved menace here.

More than 18% of all deer strikes occur in November, State Farm said, with October and December ranking second and third.

The company said deer-related claims rose 7.9% over the last four years even as claims overall declined 8.5%.

"We have known for quite a while that the frequency of auto insurance claims has been declining," said Chris Mullen, director of technology research. "But whatever is causing that trend is obviously not impacting deer-related crashes."

More from CarInsurance.com and MSN Money:

Tags:

accidentauto insurancecar insuranceinsuranceinsurance claims

< Back to Smart Spending

1Comment

Best

Oct 24, 2012 10:28AM

so the mostly likely places to hit a deer are places where deer live yet have rural roads? wow! who would have thought of that one?

Previous replies

DATA PROVIDERS

Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Morningstar Inc. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Morningstar Inc. Quotes delayed by up to 15 minutes, except where indicated otherwise. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by Morningstar Inc.

Feedback

ABOUT SMART SPENDING

Smart Spending brings you the best money-saving tips from MSN Money and the rest of the Web. Join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Editor Bev O'Shea lives and works in the foothills of the Appalachians. A former copy editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Orlando Sentinel, she joined MSN Money in 2007. She's a fan of sunsets, college football and free shipping, among other things.

Having worked as a writer, reporter and editor for more than 25 years, Editor Julie Tilsner is the sort of person who can't help but correct grammar in Facebook postings and on billboards. She's written for BusinessWeek, the Los Angeles Times, Parenting, Redbook, AOL and others. She lives in Los Angeles County with her family and loves to drink wine and practice yoga, although not generally at the same time.

A writer for MSN Money since January 2007, Donna Freedman won regional and national prizes during an 18-year newspaper career and earned a college degree in midlife without taking out student loans. She also writes about smart money tactics for magazines and on her own site, Surviving and Thriving.

Mitch Lipka has been warning people about scams and shining light on questionable business practices for more than 20 years. Mitch, the consumer columnist for The Boston Globe, has also been a reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Consumer Reports, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and AOL. He won the 2010 New York Press Club award for best consumer reporting online and was honored in 2011 for his reporting on child product safety.

Marilyn Lewis is an award-winning writer with a passion for getting readers clear, straight information that helps them stay out of financial trouble. A former reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, she works from her home in Port Townsend, Wash. Contact her at MarilynLewis@Outlook.com.