{"id":94,"date":"2019-10-02T17:25:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T17:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/?p=94"},"modified":"2020-10-05T20:30:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:30:53","slug":"what-to-do-when-you-hit-a-deer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/auto\/what-to-do-when-you-hit-a-deer\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When You Hit a Deer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What To Do When You\nHit a Deer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beginning in late October through December, the number of\ndeer-vehicle collisions tend to go up. Of course, this can happen any time of\nyear, but this time of year is the mating season (and also hunting season) for\ndeer. Do you know what to do if you hit a deer with your vehicle? Will your\ninsurance cover it? Should you call the police? Read on to learn more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If I Hit a Deer Does\nInsurance Cover It?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine driving down the road late at night or early in the\nmorning. You see the posted deer crossing signs, but you maintain your speed\nbecause you have never seen any deer on this road. Out of nowhere, a deer jumps\nout and you panic, slam on the brakes and collide with it because it does not\nmove. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deer are nocturnal animals. They have photoreceptors in\ntheir retina that allow them to see better in low light, so they have fantastic\nnight vision. They can look for food, and predators, at night while most of us\nare sleeping. But when you approach a deer in the middle of the road, and they\nlook directly into your oncoming headlights, they don&#8217;t move because the lights\nblind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this situation, some drivers swerve to avoid the deer\ncollision, but this can result in damage to your car or property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Damage to your vehicle from hitting a deer is covered under\ncomprehensive coverage. Collision insurance and liability insurance may not\ncover animal collisions. There is no animal collision insurance, but some\ninsurance policies can write in deer and livestock so that you are covered. It\ndepends on your state and insurance provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Deer Collision\nStatistics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to The National Highway Safety Administration\n(NHSA), deer-related car accidents have consistently risen over the years due\nto the increasing deer populations and destruction of their habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>There are approximately 1.5 million deer-related\ncar accidents annually<\/li><li>There are around 175-200 fatalities every year\nand 10,000 injuries<\/li><li>The cost of these accidents results in over $1\nbillion in vehicle damage<\/li><li>The vast majority of deer-related accidents happen\nin the Midwest<\/li><li>Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan,\nand Ohio have been in the top ten states for fatal deer collisions every year<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What to Do If You Hit\na Deer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you hit a deer, stay calm. You don\u2019t want to frighten the\ndeer and make things worse. If the deer is still alive, stay in your car and\nfollow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Call the police to report your accident. Be sure\nto let them know you hit a deer and report on the condition of the deer<\/li><li>Call your insurance company<\/li><li>Wait for help to arrive before getting out of\nthe car<\/li><li>Take photos of the damage to your car<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no sure way to avoid hitting deer, especially if you live in an area with a high deer population. The best thing to do is to pay attention to posted deer crossing signs, drive with your high beams on, and stay alert. Honking at deer or using deer whistles have not been proven to work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What To Do When You Hit a Deer Beginning in late October through December, the number of deer-vehicle collisions tend to go up. Of course, this can happen any time of year, but this time of year is the mating season (and also hunting season) for deer. Do you know what to do if you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-auto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluefireinsurance.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}