How to Avoid Colliding into Deer to Prevent Injuries and Expensive Auto Repairs

An NFL player suffered a head injury during a car accident that involved a deer.  Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer reported that their player was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident after he attempted to swerve out of the way of a deer.  A significant number of serious injuries occur when drivers try to avoid striking a deer that has crossed their path.  

Consumer Reports says that auto accident insurance claims involving accidents with deer increase substantially during fall because deer are mating and November has the highest number of collisions each year.  According to the news story on Consumer Reports, there are nearly two million animal collision claims each year. 

Some experts believe that enhancing pedestrian crash prevention systems to identify animals might help motorists avoid collisions with large animals.  A Consumer Reports investigation showed that more than 60% of new automobiles come equipped with "automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection." However, not all pedestrian detection systems are able to identify large animals.

Besides owning a motor vehicle with pedestrian crash prevention systems, the best strategy to avoiding a collision with a deer is to reduce your speed and allow yourself more time to react to a potential collision.  

It is also important to consider your surroundings when you are facing a collision with large wildlife or farm animals.  For example, if you are driving along a road through the woods.  It might be more dangerous to swerve around a deer in the road than it would be to reduce your speed as much as possible and strike the rear side of the animal.  Striking a tree at nearly any speed could be deadly for the driver or the front seat passenger.  Hitting the backside of a 150-pound deer would not apply the same collision forces as striking a tree, resulting in less trauma. 

Avoid driving during "peak hours."  Deer are typically the most active at dawn and between 6 PM and 9 PM.  If you can avoid driving during these "peak times" in the months of October and November, you will greatly reduce your risk of colliding with a deer. 

Collisions with large animals, such as deer, can result in front seat passenger deaths.  Avoid having passengers in the front passenger seat if at all possible to reduce the risk of a fatal injury when driving during deer mating season.  

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Sources:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10012633-vikings-everson-griffen-suffers-concussion-in-car-crash-after-swerving-to-miss-deer

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/how-to-avoid-collisions-with-deer-this-fall/