The odds that a Montana driver will crash into a deer during the next year declined by 6 percent, but Big Sky Country still ranks No. 2 in the U.S. for deer collisions, according to a survey by auto insurance company State Farm. Montana was ranked sixth two years ago.
West Virginia tops the list of states where a deer collision is most likely to occur. The odds for Montana drivers is one in 65, which is much greater than the national average of one in 174.
Every year State Farm uses its claims data and state licensed driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration to calculate the chances of any single American motorist striking a deer over the next 12 months.
For the seventh year in a row, deer-vehicle confrontations are most probable in West Virginia at one in 41. Iowa (one in 73) comes in third, South Dakota (one in 75) fourth and Pennsylvania (one in 77) rounds out the top five.
The state in which deer-vehicle mishaps are least likely is still Hawaii (one in 6,787).
State Farm’s data shows that November, the heart of the deer hunting and mating seasons, is the month during which deer-vehicle encounters are most likely. Roughly 18 percent of all such mishaps take place during the 30 days of November.
October is the second most likely month for a crash involving a deer and a vehicle. December is third.
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