Every year over 1 million Americans will report hitting a deer, resulting in billions of dollars in insurance claims. 175 – 200 people will actually be killed in a deer vs auto accident. So… which vehicle is the safest for smashing into these animals?
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Two SUVs from Jeep lead the lowest-loss list. The Wrangler two-door small SUV and four-door midsize model had the lowest overall losses for animal strikes at about one-third of the all-passenger vehicle average.
We’re guessing that most of the people who get killed were actually crashing into cars and hitting trees. This Louisville attorney points out that your friends and other people you injure may even sue you if you injure them. So, don’t smash into people just because there’s a deer in the road; you’ll be much better off just hitting your brakes and if you must just hit the deer and send them flying! Weee!
If you’d like to avoid hitting a deer or you do not have a Jeep Wrangler, consider some of these tips:
- Deer are most active from 6-9PM
- Deer travel in groups and typically cross the road in a single file fashion. If you see a deer, there’s another nearby likely following it.
- Bucks act crazy during “the rut” when the does are in heat.
- Deer get “stuck in the headlights”. If you see a deer standing in the road staring at you – it has been blinded by your headlights and it isn’t going to move until his/her eyes adjust, and that takes a lot longer than your 60MPH car does to get to where they’re standing.
- Deer sometimes dart out in front of your car because their friends dared them to.