05 Feb Don’t risk your safety for Bambi…Please!
You’re cruising down a dark, back road on your way home from a small get together with perhaps family or friends, tuned out, music up…so close to home… You glance around as you drive, trying to be aware of your surroundings… you see his little beady eyes through the thick brush and stone walls, you don’t even have time to think before suddenly, those beady eyes become a very real, large deer hurdling straight for your car! Why? Because deer aren’t very bright. I, personally, have quite a fear of hitting a deer while driving, especially on the highway because before it even happens there aren’t a lot of things you can do to avoid it (Give us a call to find out if your auto insurance covers deer-related accidents!) Fall and Winter are, in fact, the worst times for deer-related accidents and claims, so I thought I’d throw some information your way just in case you are faced with this situation! Let me bore you with a couple statistics really quickly. According to the Insurance Info Institute, around 1.6 million car accidents every single year are caused by deer, and each year it always spikes between the months of October and February. I did some research and this is apparently due to deer mating season… interesting! Now some helpful tips for you:
- Be careful especially at dawn and dusk. Deer are MOST active during these times of the day.
- Please DO expect them to run. If you can see them, slow down and proceed with caution.
- Where there is one…there are more! Deer don’t always travel alone so expect them to be traveling with their deer friends or deer family.
- Obey the signs! We all know the big, bright, yellow signs with the image of a deer leaping…they are usually accurate so be extra cautious.
- Don’t swerve!!! If a deer does decide to dart out in front of you, brake firmly but resist the urge to swerve. I know it’s one thing to say you won’t swerve, but when you are actually in the moment, our reflexes to swerve sometimes just kick in automatically and we don’t realize it’s actually the WORST thing to do. If you swerve, you could then lose control of your vehicle and cause an even worse accident then just letting the deer hit your car.
Make sure you call your insurance agent to make sure that you are covered if you should hit a deer…or should the deer hit you! Safe travels from SAVA Insurance Group.
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