Which states hit the most deer with cars?

[Caligater]

Well, here's the answer from an insurance study for 2004-2005:

Worst states for deer collisions based on total number of claims filed with one of the countries largest auto insurers:

1) Pennsylvania
2) Michigan
3) Illinois
4) Ohio
5) Georgia
6) Minnesota
7) Virginia
8) Indiana
9) Texas
10) Wisconsin

[AERO63]

Looks like I better mow a few more down to get Utah on the list!!

Joking, obviously.

Not surprising that PA is leading the charge...scary driving those windy country roads at night!

[Carpn]

I can't belive ohios not #1..We have so many deer its about impossible not to hit em...Plus all the ones that get hit are 140"+....lol

[Berretta man]

I would think it would be Texas. More deer, more people. And a lot get hit with big trucks and trucks with brush guards. They never are reported.

[Bobmuley]

I can believe that PA is #1. When I was stationed back east I'd go down I-81 on a regular basis and we could use the roadside carcasses to tell time and distance.

[MOTU]

A customer in a little town west of Columbia, SC., told me a story about having a massive amount of car/deer accidents several years ago. It got so bad that one of the major insurance companies sent an investigator, thinking there was a scam going on. While driving into town, the investigator hit a deer.

[gobblengrunt]

i would imagine my state of NJ hits more deer per square mile than any. u could easily ride a 20 mile stretch of some highways in the rut and see 50-100 dead deer a day! i work in a seven square mile town and we had over 200 accidents with deer last year.

[twisted1600]

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/E...eer_184364.htm

[savedbygrace]

Easy answer. Alabama is #1, it's just that most people round here dont have insurance.

[NY_Bowhunter14]

Doesn't suprise me that Pennsylvania is #1... I drove through Pennsylvania once, and only about 10 miles into Pennsylvania, I saw probably 6-10 dead deer... It was wild...

[Eric W]

Originally Posted by gobblengrunt

i would imagine my state of NJ hits more deer per square mile than any.

Yeah, what he said!
.

[-sRo-]

NJ should definatley be on the list!!

[Dredly]

NJ won't come close, its to small of a state.

PA has actually been in the top 3 for the last 10+ years. Annually more deer are killed on the road then by hunters, I think the ratio last time I saw the numbers (04?) was about 2:1 for car accidents to hunters.

Keep in mind as well - this is ONLY reported impacts compared to inflated numbers by the PGC (they double the harvest numbers yearly to account for "people not reporting")

If there is no damage done or not enough and the person doesn't report the insurance company doesn't add that in to make the stats look better.

[bang250]

So is the state with the lowest number the one that has better drivers with evasive manuvers?

[Trooper 08]

I can believe it because I have to do a crash report everytime somebody waffles one here in PA.

[Caligater]

Originally Posted by motu

a customer in a little town west of columbia, sc., told me a story about having a massive amount of car/deer accidents several years ago. It got so bad that one of the major insurance companies sent an investigator, thinking there was a scam going on. While driving into town, the investigator hit a deer. :d

nice!

[airwolf]

if you lived here in pa youd understand why we lead the country in accidents , i think thares around 40,000 deer killed per year here on the road , alot of cars alot of roads alot of deer

[eyebrowcounter]

Originally Posted by MOTU

A customer in a little town west of Columbia, SC., told me a story about having a massive amount of car/deer accidents several years ago. It got so bad that one of the major insurance companies sent an investigator, thinking there was a scam going on. While driving into town, the investigator hit a deer.

That's ironic, and funny. Two evenings ago comming down the other side of Tussey mnt. there was a doe and two fawns in the middle of my lane. They didn't run just stood there checking me out I was at a complete stop. Stuck my head out the window and yelled let's go, they didn't run until I opened the door. Nutty animals.

[twisted1600]

bush deer.jpg

[Eric W]

Originally Posted by Dredly

NJ won't come close, its to small of a state.

True, but if we look at number of deer/auto collisions PER SQUARE MILE I think that NJ would be a lot closer to the top.
.

[redwingsdude]

I've heard that West Virginia is way ahead of everyone in deer accidents per capita, and I believe Michigan was second.

[I like Meat]

Pa. does....around 40,000 reported deer/vehicle collisions a year....also, there are 3-5 UNreported collisions for every reported one .....here in Indiana we have around 10,000 reported so that means there are around 30-50 thousand here in this state........

[Bnbfishin]

I'm surprised WI is that far down the list. Last year I read somewhere there were supposedly over 45,000 car/deer related accidents. I need to find some info on this NOT that I want our state that hig up the list.

[Catdaddy SC]

Alot of that might be due to the salt they put of the roads in the northern states.

Up until a few years ago, SC and Miss were tied with an average of 64 deer per sq mile. We have reduced our herd by 25%.

[patreestander]

There are alot of deer hit by cars here in PA, but there is no way that the number is anywhere close to double the number killed by hunters. The total deer harvest for last year was roughly 336,000 If you say that double that are killed by cars that would be another 672,000. That would put the total death for the year at 1,008,000 from cars and hunters. Now take into consideration such things as natural mortality and predation and you would easily excede the total deer population. The stats that I've seen suggest that the number of auto related deaths is more like 40,000 per year which is more like 10-12 % of the annual hunter kill.

[dragman]

Originally Posted by Carpn

I can't belive ohios not #1..We have so many deer its about impossible not to hit em...Plus all the ones that get hit are 140"+....lol

I think ohio is behind PA in this catagory because of the terrain. PA has so so so many back roads and twisting hilly turns that causes most accidents I think. You don't see the deer til you hit them or they hit you!

[sawtoothscream]

dont think i can drive a mile down the highway in NY or PA with out seeing a few smoked deer.

just by my house we will have a bunch

[junglerooster1]

Originally Posted by bang250

So is the state with the lowest number the one that has better drivers with evasive manuvers?

that stae would be maine and its not because we are safe drivers we dont have many deer

[E_Rodrig_SQ2]

hmm #2, So is that why Michigan "doesn't have any big deer"?


LOL, somehow I bet the DNR gets blamed for this too!

[link06]

Well it used to be Wisconsin, but my guess would be Tennessee. We drove down for the bristol race in the spring and I counted almost 30 dead deer in a 8 mile stretch.

[One eye]

Michigan should be falling on that list soon, given the doe slaughters being waged here.
Dan

[PY Bucks]

And everyone always says Wis. has so many deer.

Or maybe they are just smarter then the ones from the top 9 states.

[Duck65]

Originally Posted by savedbygrace

Easy answer. Alabama is #1, it's just that most people round here dont have insurance.

That must be the reason WV wasn't on the list.

[Buckeroo]

Pennsylvanina will not be on that list for the next couple of years. There has been quite the decline in deer population in the past couple of years.

[MI Hoytforlife]

2008 Michigan Traffic Crash Facts - Statewide 91
MICHIGAN MOTOR VEHICLE-DEER INVOLVED CRASHES
Michigan had 61,010 reported motor vehicle-deer crashes during 2008. 1,648 people were injured and 12
people were killed as a result of those collisions. 8 of the 12 people killed were motorcycle drivers. Of the
61,220 vehicles involved, 42,254 (69.0%) were passenger cars, 11,976 (19.6%) were pickups, and 3,866
(6.3%) were minivans, vans, and motorhomes. All other vehicle types (including motorcycle, snowmobile,
ORV/ATV, large truck, moped) totaled 3,124 (5.1%).
Motor vehicle-deer crashes occurred most often in Michigan’s heavily populated southern counties; Jackson
County had the highest number with 2,148 such crashes in 2008, replacing Kent County (the county with the
highest number since 1984.)
GOGEBIC
96
ONTONAGON
232
HOUGHTON
248
KEWEENAW
27
IRON
413
BARAGA
222
MARQUETTE
477
DICKINSON
577
MENOMINEE
655
DELTA
815
ALGER
127 SCHOOLCRAFT
284
LUCE
121
MACKINAC
346
CHIPPEWA
414
EMMET
468 CHEBOYGAN
380
PRESQUE ISLE
387
CHARLEVOIX
490
LEELANAU
253
ANTRIM
454
OTSEGO
218
MONTMORENCY
194
ALPENA
379
BENZIE
289
GRAND
TRAVERSE
573
KALKASKA
233
CRAWFORD
265
OSCODA
141
ALCONA
525
MANISTEE
493
WEXFORD
491
MISSAUKEE
389
ROSCOMMON
356
OGEMAW
631
IOSCO
405
MASON
804
LAKE
290
OSCEOLA
655
CLARE
554
GLADWIN
527
ARENAC
530
OCEANA
534 NEWAYGO
845
MECOSTA
1,052
ISABELLA
1,114
MIDLAND
925
BAY
485
MUSKEGON
722 MONTCALM
1,581
GRATIOT
1,022
SAGINAW
1,049
HURON
1,201
TUSCOLA
1,022
SANILAC
1,162
OTTAWA
1,098
KENT
2,062 IONIA
1,121
CLINTON
1,322
SHIAWASSEE
1,090
GENESEE
1,263
LAPEER
1,364 ST. CLAIR
823
ALLEGAN
1,108
BARRY
1,064
EATON
1,510
INGHAM
1,503
LIVINGSTON
1,134
OAKLAND
1,859
MACOMB
638
VAN BUREN
744
KALAMAZOO
1,193
CALHOUN
1,733
JACKSON
2,148
WASHTENAW
1,167
WAYNE
369
BERRIEN
935 CASS
814
ST. JOSEPH
697
BRANCH
1,001
HILLSDALE
1,053
LENAWEE
767
MONROE
288
Vehicle-Deer Crashes
0 - 299
300 - 599
600 - 999
1,000 - 1,499
1,500 +

[robbates]

i would imagine my state of NJ hits more deer per square mile than any. u could easily ride a 20 mile stretch of some highways in the rut and see 50-100 dead deer a day! i work in a seven square mile town and we had over 200 accidents with deer last year.


I agree! I'm surprised to see the NJ is not even on your list at all.. It's definately an every three day occurance here in Sussex county for a good part of the months.

[cmherrmann]

Car insurance numbers mean nothing, most Wisconsin drivers that hit deer at night have been drinking and only stop if the car is totally disabled.

Last year WI hunters during the gun season killed 277,000 deer and that was down 20% from the previous year. The DNR estimated the deer herd at 1.7 million last year but have since said that they could be off by as much as 500,000 or more and the actual count is closer to 1 million.

The WI DNR is getting what it wants very few deer but they wonder why the number of hunters keeps declining. They now dropped the age from 12 to 10 for what they say is to get kids interested in hunting. Everyone knows it's to get more money.

[frasermark]

As a state overall I know California is way down the list but I remember at one point state hiway 299 had more deer hir than any road in the country. Northern Cal in prime blacktail country.

[dragman]

Originally Posted by Buckeroo

Pennsylvanina will not be on that list for the next couple of years. There has been quite the decline in deer population in the past couple of years.

Not near my place. There are a bunch of deer around my place I think there are to many bucks compared to does but lots of deer anyway.

[ryan.u]

dont supprise me at all that michigan is #2 on the list
here in lapeer county thats all you see on the roads is dead deer....way to many deer here in michigan or at least whare i am at