Published: November 09, 2008 11:08 pm      

W.Va. has highest deer-vehicle collision rate

Add another category where West Virginia suffers the dubious distinction of being No. 1 — the chance of colliding with a fleeting buck or doe when suddenly trapped in your headlights on a quiet, country road.

Based on figures it has compiled over the years, State Farm Insurance says the odds are growing worse each year for state motorists.

“It is a major concern for insurance carriers,” says Erin Bailey, public affairs specialist for State Farm, working out of its Fairmont office.

“You look at statistics that have come out on deer losses just recently. It looks like, of course, for the second year in a row, we are more likely to collide with a deer in West Virginia than any other state.”

Only a few months ago, state Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline, in an interview with The Register-Herald, said one in 63 highway crashes in West Virginia are with a deer.

Drivers have been known to get hurt, even suffer fatal injuries, after a vehicle and deer try unsuccessfully to occupy the same chunk of real estate simultaneously and the deer wins with the motorist hurtling through a guardrail, or smashing against a thick tree.

Physical hurts aside, such collisions can impose pain in the wallets of both the driver and the insurance firm.

In 2007, for instance, State Farm settled some 6,200 claims in highway crashes involving deer, paying out an average of about $1,900 per accident, Bailey pointed out.

“We have a way of tracking it,” she said. “About 26 percent of all comprehensive claims involve deer.”

One potential means of lessening one’s chances of striking a running deer on a moonlit night in the country is a special sign that begins flashing an amber light when the animals gather in a meadow or forest near a road.

A number of states have been using such devices, and in at least three western states, they have shown a measure of success. Collisions with mule deer were cut in half once the flashing warning signs were erected.

Just how effective they might prove in West Virginia is what Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, a member of the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Committee, intends to learn. That panel meets in monthly interims at the Capitol, and Bowman has been promised a report by the Division of Natural Resources on the warning signs during the Dec. 7-9 interims.

“This is something that, I believe, would reduce the vehicle deer collisions,” Bowman said in an August interview.

“Again, we’re talking about saving lives. We’re talking about saving their property. And, quite frankly, my thoughts are, initially, if that be the case, the biggest beneficiary, other than those who may save a life, are the insurance companies.”

Bailey said State Farm apparently has no experience with the warning signs, but the insurance carrier is interested in them — anything, for that matter, which could reverse the costly trend.

“I look forward to anything that would help decrease the deer-vehicle collisions,” she said.

Crashes with deer can occur any time across West Virginia, but appear to be more likely in October, November and December, in both the mating and hunting seasons, especially when the animals are being flushed out by hordes of hunters, Bailey said.

“And deer season is just around the corner,” she added.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com