For the third straight year, data compiled by State Farm Insurance indicates that drivers in West Virginia have the greatest likelihood of hitting a deer with their motor vehicle.
Research shows that drivers in The Mountain State have a one-in-39
chance of hitting a deer during the next 12 months—a marked increase from last
year’s one-in-45 odds. Michigan ranked second with a likelihood of one in 78.
State Farm’s data
also reveals that the number of vehicles on U.S. roadways has grown by 7 percent
over the last five years, certainly a contributing factor to the rise in deer
encounters. But the number of times those vehicles have collided with
deer has increased by an even greater margin.
The research
estimates 2.4 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S.
during the two-year period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009 — 18.3
percent more than five years earlier. That breaks down to one deer/vehicle
encounter every 26 seconds in the U.S.
Following the lead
of West Virginia and Michigan comes Pennsylvania (1 in 94) and Iowa (1 in
104). Montana (1 in 104) moved up three places to fifth.
Arkansas and South
Dakota each dropped a spot to sixth and seventh. Wisconsin remained
eighth, while North Dakota and Virginia round out the top 10.
Comments