Deer Collisions in Virginia: Statistics, Seasonal Risk and What Follows a Strike

Most deer collisions in Virginia never become a crash statistic. The driver pulls over, checks the grille, maybe calls an insurer, and drives on. No officer writes a report, so the crash never reaches the state database. That gap shapes every number on this page, and it is the first thing to understand before quoting one.

The numbers

Virginia’s official crash counts come from police crash reports, which the Department of Motor Vehicles collects in the Traffic Records Electronic Data System, known as TREDS.¹ The table below is where the most recent statewide figures belong.

Source note for this table: police-reported crashes only. [Verified statistic and source required: the TREDS query used for the table (collision type “deer” or the separate animal or deer field), the date the data were pulled, and whether the most recent year is final or preliminary.]

How the count is pulled matters. In a 2017 review, the Virginia Transportation Research Council, the research arm of the Virginia Department of Transportation, ran the same year of police reports through two state query tools. Searching the “Collision Type” field for deer returned 5,593 crashes in 2016. A separate deer field, which also caught crashes such as a rear-end collision after a driver braked hard for a deer, returned 7,544.²

Why the official count runs low

Police reports are not filed for every crash. Virginia law requires an officer who investigates a crash to send a report to DMV when someone is hurt or killed, or when property damage appears to reach $3,000 or more.³ A report depends on an officer being called in the first place, and VTRC notes that many drivers do not notify police after hitting an animal.²

The researchers measured the gap. In the areas they examined, deer carcass removal records showed up to 8.5 times as many deer collisions as police reports did. Statewide, from 2012 through 2016, deer crashes in police reports equaled about 1 in 7.7 of deer-collision insurance claims.² For 2016, the report set about 7,500 police-reported deer crashes against an insurance-based estimate of 61,141.²

Virginia’s Wildlife Corridor Action Plan, completed in May 2023 by four state agencies, puts the scale this way: “More than 60,000 known deer-vehicle collisions have occurred annually in Virginia since 2015.”⁴ That figure is far above the police-reported count and in line with the insurance-based estimates VTRC used. Anyone quoting a Virginia deer-crash number should say which kind it is.

What insurers estimate

Insurers publish their own measures of deer-strike risk by state, usually as the odds that a driver will file an animal-collision claim in a year.

• Virginia drivers’ odds of an animal-collision claim: [Verified statistic and source required: Virginia odds of an animal-collision insurance claim and the reporting period; the insurer’s own published claims study, cited to its release]
• Virginia’s national rank: [Verified statistic and source required: Virginia’s rank among states for animal-collision claims, same insurer study and period]
• Average claim cost: [Verified statistic and source required: average animal-collision claim cost, national or Virginia; insurer or industry source with year]

Treat these with care. FHWA’s 2008 report described one such national estimate, built by scaling one insurer’s claims up to the whole market. It cautioned that the method can miss drivers who lack the coverage that pays for deer damage, and can run high if drivers blame a deer for damage that had another cause.⁵

When the risk peaks

Fall. Deer activity climbs in autumn, and the breeding season, or rut, runs from about October through December. Virginia’s Wildlife Corridor Action Plan identifies November as the worst month for collisions, followed by October and December.⁴

Dawn and dusk. Deer move most around first and last light. National crash data in FHWA’s 2008 report to Congress show the expected peaks in early morning and evening.⁵ In late fall, once the clocks change, dusk arrives around the evening commute.

Two-lane roads. FHWA found that 89 percent of wildlife-vehicle collisions in national crash databases for 2001 to 2005 occurred on two-lane roads, and that such crashes were more common on low-volume roads.⁵ Highways are not exempt. On a 30-mile stretch of Interstate 64 in Albemarle County, VTRC found deer collisions among the most common crash types in police reports, and carcass removal records put deer collisions at roughly three to five times the next most frequent types.²

Why swerving is often worse than braking

Almost every wildlife-vehicle collision involves a single vehicle: 98.5 percent in one crash data set FHWA analyzed and 99 percent in another.⁵ Fatal ones are more likely to involve something else. In federal fatal-crash data on animal-related crashes, the two most common collision types other than striking the animal were hitting another vehicle and overturning. FHWA said that pattern reinforces the view that swerving to avoid an animal may lead to a more severe crash.⁵

The logic is simple. A deer weighs far less than a tree, a utility pole or an oncoming car. A driver who brakes firmly and stays in the lane is usually choosing the smaller collision. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners puts it plainly: “If you do swerve, you could lose control and hit a tree or veer into oncoming traffic.”⁶ And one deer that crosses safely is often followed by another.

A driver who brakes firmly and stays in the lane is usually choosing the smaller collision.

What follows a strike

Safety first. Get the vehicle out of traffic if it can be driven, turn on the hazard lights, and stay away from an injured deer, which can lash out with hooves or antlers.

Notify police when required. Virginia law requires the driver, or someone acting for the driver, to notify law enforcement immediately when a crash causes injury or death.⁷ NAIC also advises alerting authorities when the car cannot be moved or the carcass is blocking traffic, so the road can be cleared.⁶ Ask your insurer whether it wants a police report for an animal claim.

Document it. NAIC advises photographing the vehicle damage, the roadway and any injuries.⁶ The time, the location and the names of any witnesses help as well.

Check the coverage. Damage from hitting an animal usually falls under comp (other-than-collision) coverage, not collision coverage. A swerve into a guardrail or another car can turn the claim into a collision claim. Policies differ, and liability-only policies generally do not pay for damage to the driver’s own car. We cover the details in Deer Strikes and Auto Insurance.

The deer itself. Virginia lets a driver who kills a deer in a collision claim it for personal use, after reporting the collision to a conservation police officer or other law-enforcement officer, who issues a call or report number.⁸

When a deer strike becomes a multi-vehicle crash

A deer is no one’s legal fault. In a single-vehicle strike there is usually no other party to hold responsible, so the driver’s own insurance does most of the work.

That changes when other vehicles are involved: a driver brakes hard for a deer and is rear-ended, or swerves across the center line into an oncoming car. Negligence now matters, and Virginia handles it differently from most states.

Virginia follows pure contributory negligence. A plaintiff found even slightly at fault is generally barred from recovering damages. The Supreme Court of Virginia has repeated that “a negligent plaintiff may recover only if his negligence was a remote rather than a proximate cause of the accident.”⁹ Most states instead use some form of comparative negligence, in which a plaintiff’s share of fault reduces the award, at least up to a threshold, rather than eliminating it.

That makes the details of a chain-reaction crash weigh heavily in Virginia. An argument that a driver was speeding, following too closely or not watching the road can decide a claim outright. Exceptions exist. One is the last clear chance doctrine; in that 2017 decision, the court held that a plaintiff’s continuing negligence does not automatically bar its use.⁹ How these rules apply depends on the facts and on Virginia case law. This page explains the general framework and is not legal advice.

What roads can do

Driver caution only goes so far against an animal that bolts from the treeline. The engineering answer has a strong record.

FHWA’s 2008 report to Congress found that wildlife fencing, with or without crossing structures, reduced collisions with deer and other large animals by 87 percent on average across the studies it reviewed, with a range of 80 to 99 percent.⁵ Fencing by itself can cut animals off from habitat across the road, and animals are more likely to break through when safe crossings are too few or too far apart. So fences are usually paired with underpasses or overpasses, and with escape ramps, called jump-outs, for animals that end up on the road side.⁵

Virginia has tested the approach on its own roads. VTRC researchers added about a mile of 8-foot fencing at each of two existing underpasses on I-64. After installation, deer-vehicle collisions fell 96.5 percent at one site and 88 percent at the other, with no increase within a mile of the fence ends.¹⁰ The state’s action plan reports that crash savings covered the cost in about 1.8 years.⁴

State law now directs that work. Code of Virginia § 29.1-579 requires the Department of Wildlife Resources, working with VDOT, the Department of Forestry and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, to identify areas with a high risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions and to prioritize and recommend crossing projects.¹¹ The resulting Wildlife Corridor Action Plan maps those areas.⁴ [Verified statistic and source required: name, location and status of a current or planned Virginia wildlife crossing or fencing project, if the piece is to cite one; VDOT project page or the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan’s latest update]