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Top 10 deer-auto collision states
General Deer Topics
Messages posted to thread:
Jack Harris 16-Dec-15
habu john 16-Dec-15
IdyllwildArcher 16-Dec-15
Jack Harris 16-Dec-15
Kevin Dill 17-Dec-15
Fulldraw1972 17-Dec-15
Bowfreak 17-Dec-15
Brotsky 17-Dec-15
Genesis 17-Dec-15
cottonwood 17-Dec-15
mattandersen 17-Dec-15
SoDakSooner 17-Dec-15
Mike Vines 17-Dec-15
Paul@thefort 17-Dec-15
Sean D. 17-Dec-15
SteveBNY 17-Dec-15
kentuckbowhnter 17-Dec-15
nehunter 17-Dec-15
pawpaw 17-Dec-15
WV Mountaineer 17-Dec-15
Kevin Dill 18-Dec-15
Amoebus 18-Dec-15
Charlie Rehor 18-Dec-15
WV Mountaineer 18-Dec-15
archer 19-Dec-15
RymanCat 20-Dec-15
StickFlicker 22-Dec-15
Kevin Dill 22-Dec-15
Zbone 23-Dec-15
Kevin Dill 23-Dec-15
Hunting5555 23-Dec-15
cottonwood 23-Dec-15
12yards 23-Dec-15
Kevin Dill 23-Dec-15
Zbone 23-Dec-15


Date:16-Dec-15
Jack Harris's Supporting Link

Nationwide, 1 out of every 169 drivers will collide with deer during 2015 (ok nearly over)

Here are the top 10 states in descending order, showing the probability of a driver having a deer collision.

#10 - Michigan/Virginia tied, at 1 in 97

#9 - South Carolina, 1 in 95

#8 - Mississippi, 1 in 88

#7 - Minnesota, 1 in 81

#6 - Wisconsin, 1 in 77

#5 - South Dakota, 1 in 73

#4 - Pennsylvania, 1 in 70

#3 - Iowa, 1 in 68

#2 - Montana, 1 in 63

#1 - West Virginia, 1 in 44

NJ doesn't make the cut. Ironic that the only doe that I saw from September 16th through all of November in my local DMZ, hit my jeep as I drove by the local WMA parking lot on 10/25 after a morning hunt in a different DMZ... She just ran out of nowhere and hit me from the side. Saw her struggling to get into woods with broken front leg(s)... Went back to find her later, all I found was a frisky spike standing where she should have been (probably the perp)

The dirty little secret is NJ is no longer over-run with deer like it once was. Mission accomplished. Many of us are banding together to put a stop to unlimited antlerless all-out slaugher that continues, and shotgun hunting in Jan/Feb. After several very harsh winters in a row, very high bear and coyote predation, and regulations that were put into place by the insurance lobby to reduce auto accidents, it's time to put the curbs back in place. A lot of upset hunters in my state right now, as numbers are way down and we have about 2 more months of bow, shotgun, and muzzy unlimited antlerless going on with even more buck opportunities if you didn't tag out during 6-day firearm.

I am done killing does around me for a while, possibly many years, they are seemingly near extinction, and although there are a few more bucks than does, not many at that.

I think W. Virginia is looking good!

Date:16-Dec-15

Michigan's UP deer herd is very low these days and of course the deer crashes are way down.

Date:16-Dec-15

NJ probably has skewed ratios down as well because they have so many drivers in the northern urban areas that are not hitting deer and are driving a lot.

Many of those states listed are very rural.

Date:16-Dec-15

when I left for Ohio 3am on 10/31, I felt very safe driving in NJ during a peak collision time of year - I neve saw a deer, and it remained that way the first 2 hours into Pa... Once I got West of Hazleton it was scary, road kill everywhere, nearly hit one at high speed, and when I showed up at Matt Andersen's we were observing a lot of venison meat all along the side of my Jeep from the already dead stuff in the road I was running over that was pretty well splattered from the big trucks. Pennslyvania has a section of pretty good deer densities from Dubois to Pittsburg. .

Date:17-Dec-15

I have a friend who runs the busiest and best collision repair shop in town. He's told me many times how much he depends on deer for collision business.

I also read that PA submits almost 10% of all deer-auto claims nationwide despite being 4th on the list. They obviously are killing a large amount of deer on the roads there, but the high numbers of drivers affects the statistical odds.

One set of 2013 stats shows WV has well under 2M licensed drivers. Ohio has over 8M. Montana is under 1M.

The combination of fewer drivers (most of them rural) and many deer can skew the odds to look like the state has a deer problem.

Ohio had about 20k deer collisions in 2013.

Just some interesting additional stuff to ponder.

Date:17-Dec-15

It doesn't surprise me with Mn being in the top 10. There is stretch of highway 23 south of Marshall that I counted 72 deer laying dead in 12 miles of road. It's all state park on the west side of the road and ag ground on the east side. The twin cities area I am sure has its fair share of collisions as well.

Date:17-Dec-15

Good luck. Your foray will be similar to bangin your head against the wall. Fish and Game departments under intense pressure from the insurance lobbyists are bound and determined to reduce herd sizes.

In the end the only real option we have is to band together as hunters and not take does. Again....good luck. Many hunters will shoot as many as the state allows regardless of any other factors.

Date:17-Dec-15

Considering there's probably only 150 licensed drivers in SD we must have hit 2 deer last year! Ha!

Date:17-Dec-15

In most cases reduced herd sizes increase size/health of deer

Date:17-Dec-15

yep, like it or not hunters are the deer managers at this point. if we won't shoot too many does the state will have to pay someone to do it to reach their goals of reducing the herd.

I think as a general rule of thumb, if every hunter shot the same number of bucks and does or at least made an attempt to do so the problem would be fixed

Date:17-Dec-15

I remember all the chunks of meat on your Jeep Jack! haha

Date:17-Dec-15

I was talking to my mom last night in SD and there is a stretch of interstate that when they raised the speed limit recently they left this stretch the same due to all the animal collisions(or potential for them)

Even my brother says to be on the lookout in that area(between Sturgis and Spearfish)

....and some of those critters are elk.

Good one Brotsky...

Date:17-Dec-15

Got my Michigan deer, this year, on the drive home from a moose hunt. That one was expensive.

Date:17-Dec-15

When I lived and hunted in Michigan in the 1970s, it was reported that 50,000 deer were killed on Michigan highways in those years.

Additional data states that in 1994, 56,666 deer were kill on the highways, causing 5 humans deaths and 1500 injured.

Nationwide deer kills have to be over 1/2 million per year on highways.

my best, Paul

Date:17-Dec-15

I use to travel all over the country when I was rodeoing and put many thousand of miles on our trucks, (almost 80000 miles in 1 year once) The last time I was in Jersey, I saw more dead deer than I have in any other state! It was crazy how many there was!

Date:17-Dec-15

Can anyone post examples of where insurance companies have/are spending money on trying to get herds reduced? Payouts for deer collisions are but a tiny fraction of their expense and hardly show on the radar. They don't lose a thing - simply bump the comp rate in areas where more collisions take place. Because of this, it may actually be a money maker in some areas.

Would really like to see some proof otherwise if what I have been told above is wrong.

Date:17-Dec-15

West Virginia should not be on the list, they do it on purpose.

Date:17-Dec-15

I cant believe Kentucky didnt make it. I saw hundreds during the rut this past Month.

By: pawpaw
Date:17-Dec-15

You don't have to do it on purpose when there are approximately 36 deer per square mile in WV.

Date:17-Dec-15

There were no deer here according to most on the WV regional site last year. Last year when mast was high, deer sightings were extremely low. Most everyone over there was screaming the deer were dead. That our DNR had traded our hunting for insurance company interests. And, there were no big bucks in our state.

Fast forward one year. Deer harvest was extremely high this year. Many bucks carried over and, added to our age structure of the buck herd, that is as good or better than any state in the land according to DNR numbers of aged deer.

Yep, there is no deer here. That is all false. It is just our representatives manipulating numbers to make the Insurance companies happy. They get to charge us WV'ians, much higher premiums than surrounding states due to this disguise.

And, there are no big bucks here either. Go to OHIO instead. God Bless men

Date:18-Dec-15

More fun stats to think about:

There are around 1.1 to 1.5 million car-deer accidents in the US every year. (deer, elk and moose)

The estimated cost of those accidents is over 1 billion dollars.

150 drivers killed in an average year. 10,000 injuries.

PA has more total car-deer collisions (over 100,000) than any other state, costing 400 million dollars annually.

WV had about 20,000 collision in 2011 which was the last year I could find data on.

An 'average' collision repair costs $4,000.

Date:18-Dec-15

If the deer in WV don't want to get hit, they should stay off of the sidewalks.

Mike Vines - "Got my Michigan deer, this year, on the drive home from a moose hunt."

The reverse would have been much worse.

Date:18-Dec-15

Guys: The good ole days of 1985 to 2005 are sadly over. I hunt whites in the east and midwest and everywhere is down varying degrees for one reason or another. If you are older than 60 you saw what it was like to have few deer but I realize many younger guys never knew when seeing a "track" was a big deal. There is something cyclical going on and it various everywhere. The bottom line is on a relative basis we are still in very good times to be a bow hunter. C

Date:18-Dec-15

With a nutritional requirement of nearly 2 tons/deer, per year, of woody browse, the cyclical effect we are seeing is due to lack of sustainable young succession in their habitat.

What most people don't realize is that traditional whitetail country was basically clear cut up through our Industrial revolution and mid 20th century. For farms, timber needs, homesteads, etc.... Perfect habitat soon to follow. Plus, with a management scheme geared towards creating the deer herds, great food and habitat, the deer exploded. Now, they simple do not have the habitat as they once did.

Agriculture, food plots, etc... do not alone equal carrying capacity. Young woods habitat does. That's the short of it. God Bless

By: archer
Date:19-Dec-15

New Jersey was not in the top 10 ten years ago either. West Virginia wasn't on the list 10 years ago. PA was #1 now it's number 4. Things change.

Date:20-Dec-15

Hum not one mention of the deperbation permits ugh Jack. Factor that in now and NJ insurance company's are fat cats with collisions down. Endless does what about decease? This is being blamed in NJ for the lack of deer now rather than long seasons and regulation issues being in place.

Plus the NJ state is blaming EHD from baiting as well. There's variables and many combinations of what happened to our NJ. deer.

I would not put it past any insurance company to have had introduced some sort of program that could cause a major die off. Insurance company's are the enemy well known facts at large.

I don't like to think that they may have without solid proof but I can't rule it out either? There stands a possibility's from some of the things they have been known to do or been involved in the past.LOL

Date:22-Dec-15

Even the number 10 state, Michigan, kills approximately 4 times more deer with automobiles each year than my home state of Arizona kills with all hunting weapons combined! That's including both mule deer and Coues deer.

Date:22-Dec-15

Sunday evening my wife and I drove home from Columbus, OH at dusk. We were on OH-104 which runs through mainly farmland with a lot of homes interspersed. In 15 miles of driving we estimated seeing well over 100 deer feeding in fields.

Today (Tuesday) I was in Cincinnati and drove home again just as dusk was settling. From Williamsburg to Jackson I'm sure I saw over 150 deer in roadside fields. I spotted at least 3 bucks with very good racks; easily big enough to identify at 200 yards while driving 70 mph. There were at least 20+ deer in one field just east of Peebles.

We've killed 3 with vehicles and it cost us thousands, not to mention down time without the wrecked car or truck. Deer are great but not on the road.

By: Zbone
Date:23-Dec-15

Don't want to get into this again Kevin, but how many miles from Cincy to Jackson, times how many acres can the eye see on both sides of the road, divided by 150... Hmmm, figure that per square mile... You are talking about the SW most rural region in the state, not the heavily populated NE region of the state... Now think about a million hunters chasing those few...

Fact is autos and deer will always collide, but regardless, in this densely populated state, OH doesn't even rank in the top 10...

Date:23-Dec-15

"OH doesn't even rank in the top 10"

I know this makes you happy, and it does me too.

Date:23-Dec-15

Charlie is right. I can remember my dad hunting hard back in the 70's and not seeing the first deer from his stand all season in S. IL.

Someone shooting one with a bow was a huge deal. Guys from all over town would stop by to look at a doe!

For years I hunted with older gentlemen who could remember when the first deer sighting in our county was reported on the front page of the local paper!! Seriously.

So at least in S. IL, the deer herd is obviously down, but it ain't no where near as low as it used to be. We've just gotten spoiled!!

Date:23-Dec-15

Could the total economic cost from auto/deer collisions be tied to the fact but everyone is driving around brand new cars with car payments? Not to mention the fact that these new cars crumble at the slightest impact. Also, if 150 people die each year from deer / auto collisions maybe this is something that auto manufacturers should think about. A young man in our local community was killed this year not 2 miles from one of my hunting spots when he lost control after hitting a deer. Last year I know one young man was killed after a motorcycle collision and the young before a friends dad had a near death accident on a motorcycle after hitting a deer. All three in November.

Date:23-Dec-15

Every year nearly 3500 people die from unintentional drowning. I think we should drain every lake, pond, ocean, river so it doesn't happen anymore. Also, I bet trees kill more drivers every year than deer do. We should eliminate all trees. And I'm positive cell phones and beer kill more people every year than deer as well. We should get rid of those too. And guns!!!! Don't even get me started on those. Choking was the causes more deaths than deer vehicle collisions. I'm going to quit eating I think.

I guess what my point is is that to eliminate deer because some people die after hitting them is ridiculous. Many other things cause hugely more premature death than deer. And think of all the body shops that rely on deer/car collisions for their very livelihood. ;^D

Date:23-Dec-15

"Also, if 150 people die each year from deer / auto collisions maybe this is something that auto manufacturers should think about."

The most frequent cause of death isn't from hitting the deer; it's from swerving and a subsequent wreck which ends in death.

By: Zbone
Date:23-Dec-15

Very unfortunate my area had 2 freak auto accidents involving deer the past month or so ago...

One - A motorist hit and already dead lying deer causing the vehicle to cross over 4-lane medium and hit a chemical truck killing the tanker driver...

The other happened on a rural road when a vehicle hit a deer sending it airborn into an on coming vehicle's windsteild killing the driver...

Both accidents very tragic and so sad... Hadn't heard of a accidental death involing a deer in the area in many, many, years, and then these happened within a month of each other within 20 miles apart...


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