Richmond Outside

Virginia has cracked the top 10 states where people are most likely to have a deer/vehicle collision. We were 12th last year (2010-2011) and now we’re No. 10. But we’re not nearly as likely to plow a whitetail as our neighbor to the west.

For the sixth year in a row, West Virginia tops the list of states where an individual driver is most likely to run into a deer. Using its claims data and state licensed driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration, State Farm, calculates the chances of a West Virginia motorist striking a deer over the next 12 months at 1 in 40, compared with 1 in 48 the year before.

Considering Virginia had 5,402,347 licensed drivers in 2010 and there were 52,369 deer/vehicle collisions on Virginia roads in 2011-2012, State Farm estimates Virginians have a 1 in 103.2 chance of hitting a deer in 2012-2013

South Dakota moved from third to second on the list. The likelihood of a licensed driver in that state hitting a deer within the next year is 1 in 68. Iowa (1 in 71.9) drops from second to third. Michigan (1 in 72.4) is a close fourth jumping one position from fifth. Pennsylvania (1 in 76) drops one spot to fifth. In each of the top five states the rate of deer-related collisions per driver went up from a year ago.

The state in which deer-vehicle mishaps are least likely is still Hawaii (1 in 6,801). The odds of a driver in Hawaii colliding with a deer between now and 12 months from now are approximately equal to the odds that any one person will be struck by lightning during his or her lifetime.