The Top 20 states with highest odds for a deer-motor vehicle accident

Of the 50 states where wild animals roam – sometimes onto busy highways, much to the chagrin of motorists, transportation officials, law enforcement, insurance companies, and likely the deer themselves – some 20 are standouts.

To this Rouge’s Gallery the State Farm Insurance Company has compiled a “Top 20” list of those states which are the most likely for a motorist to smack, crunch, pow, and ding a white-tailed deer.

In a report State Farm Insurance noted that the chances of experiencing a deer-motor vehicle accident are one in 169. Ah, but the rub is that not all states are created equal when it comes to deer messing up someone’s commute.

With that in mind, State Farm’s list of the 20 states with the greatest odds of a motorist and a deer meeting on the “no passing” centerline of the highway - in descending order, with the odds followed by the likely percentage of insurance rates increasing after an incident - are :

Twenty: Nebraska – 0.685; 3%

Nineteen: Kansas – 0.73%; 3%

Eighteen: Georgia – 0.75%; 22%

Seventeen: Ohio and Alabama (tie) – 0.79%; 18% and 16%, respectively.

Sixteen: Missouri – 0.81%; 21%

Fifteen: Maryland – 0.83%; 14%

Fourteen: North Dakota – also 0.83%, though State Farm lists the two states separately; 7%

Thirteen: Wyoming – 0.91%; Zero %

Twelve: Arkansas and Kentucky (tie) - 0.93%; 3% and 23%, respectively

Eleven: North Carolina – 0.97%; 39%

Ten: Michigan – 1.06%; 16%

Nine: South Carolina: 1.08%; 24%

Eight: Virginia and Minnesota (tie): 1.14%; 22% and 30%, respectively

Seven: Wisconsin – 1.18%; 22%

Six: Mississippi – 1.19%; 11%

Five: South Dakota – 1.22%; 4%

Three: Montana – 1.33%; 4%

Two: Pennsylvania: 1.14%; 15%

One: West Virginia – 2.56%; Zero percent

 

By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

 Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 125 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.