State Farm Insurance released data based on its claims records to determine the probabilities of deer to vehicle collisions for each state as well as the months on which such collisions were most likely to happen. The company relied heavily on claims such as those for windshield repair, auto glass repair and replacement, auto body repair, and the like. And according to the data, now is the perfect time for drivers to exercise even more vigilance than usual, as the figures show a consistent rise in deer to vehicle collisions in the last three months of each year.
As expected of its terrain, West Virginia is the place highest on the list—and this for what is now the fourth consecutive year as first-place on the list. Thousands of windshield repair and auto body claims are made every year in that state, many of them due to cars colliding with deer appearing from nowhere. The likelihood of slamming into a deer while driving in W. Virginia is about 1 in 41.91 (the precision of statistics allows for decimal places, after all). The second-place state, Iowa, came in at chances of 1 in 67.09.
Naturally, states with denser forests and shrubbery near the highways and roads saw higher occurrences than others. For example, Arizona with its fairly clear spaces posted a respectable 1 in 1,788.47 chance of hitting a deer while driving—pretty slim, one might say. Still, that figure is nothing compared to Hawaii, where drivers only have a 1 out of 13,011.28 chance of getting into a deer to vehicle collision. Hawaii has consistently placed at the bottom of this list in the past years of State Farm running the statistics.
It only stands to reason that the collisions would increase in the fall-winter period: this even goes beyond the animals’ habits and natural instincts of migration at this time. It is not only deer to vehicle accidents but other types of collisions that go up in occurrence rates, after all, due to the lower visibility caused by shortening daylight hours and earlier-encroaching darkness. As a result, more drivers have to be out and on the roads in poorer light during fall and winter, bringing up the chances of accidents.
The least drivers can do is to have their headlights on whenever driving at darkening times. Another duty drivers should make sure to cover is the maintenance of their windshields and auto glass. Broken windscreens should be taken in for windshield repair as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of crack propagation and limits on visibility and damaged auto glass should be replaced in like manner, to provide a driver with a clear line of vision at all times.
