8 Driving Mistakes That Turn Michigan’s Deer Season Into an Insurance Claim
Michiganders hit more than 58,000 deer every year.
Many of those crashes trace back to a bad habit behind the wheel, not bad luck.
These are the driving mistakes that turn Michigan’s deer season into an insurance claim.
Note: This is general information, not insurance advice. Coverage and terms are subject to change, so check the specifics with your insurer or agent.
1. Keeping Highway Speed at Dawn and Dusk
Michigan State Police recorded more than 58,000 vehicle-deer crashes statewide in 2024.
A lot of them cluster into a few predictable hours.
That same data puts the worst windows at 8-9 a.m. and 6-9 p.m., the same stretches as the morning and evening commute.
That’s not a coincidence.
Deer feed at the edges of the day.
Commuters on routes like US-131 hit that exact window doing 55 or 60 with their mind on the next exit.
Slowing down five or ten miles an hour through a known stretch buys extra reaction time.
It costs almost nothing.
That’s the trade-off Michigan’s deer season puts in front of commuters every fall.
Losing it swaps a five-minute delay for a comprehensive insurance claim.
2. Swerving Instead of Braking Straight
Michigan State Police and AAA give drivers the same instruction for a deer that’s already in the road: Brake hard, hold the wheel straight, and stay in the lane.
Many drivers do the opposite.
They yank the wheel toward the shoulder or the oncoming lane instead.
That move, not the deer strike, causes the worst injuries and deaths in Michigan’s deer crashes.
A swerve that clips a tree, a guardrail, or another car does more damage than the deer would have.
It also changes which insurance claim a driver has to file afterward.
How Michigan Splits a Deer Claim in Two
Michigan treats a deer strike as two different claims depending on what the car hits.
Hitting the deer itself triggers Michigan’s optional comprehensive coverage, which pays for the repair.
Swerving into a ditch, a guardrail, or another car instead turns it into a collision claim, often with a higher deductible and a chance of being found at fault for leaving the lane.
3. Assuming One Deer Means It’s Over
Michigan’s deer rarely cross a road alone.
Many drivers hit the gas again the moment the first one clears, certain the danger passed.
It usually hasn’t.
Michigan State Police says deer travel single file, especially heading into the rut, so a second or third deer is often only a few seconds behind the first.
Wildlife officials are blunt about it: See one deer and slow down.
More are probably close by.
The second deer is the one that catches a driver at full speed.
That second hit lands hardest during the weeks around Michigan’s firearm season, when the rut keeps deer crossing roads in loose lines all day.
It rarely stays a single comprehensive claim.
It becomes two.
4. Leaving the High Beams Off
Michigan’s own state police guidance tells drivers to run high beams whenever no oncoming car is close enough to blind.
That extra light catches a deer’s eyes and its outline on the shoulder before it’s too late to react.
Many drivers skip it out of old habit.
That’s a bad habit.
Low beams light up a fraction of the distance high beams do.
On a dark two-lane road, that gap is the difference between braking with room to spare and braking on top of the animal.
Michigan’s deer season packs its worst crashes into exactly those dark hours, when the sun sets earlier and commutes run straight into it.
A driver who skips the high beams there trades a clear look at the shoulder for a bigger repair bill.
5. Riding the Bumper on Two-Lane Roads
Michigan’s deer crashes overwhelmingly happen on two-lane roads, the same roads where a driver following too closely has nowhere to go.
About 80% of the state’s deer crashes happen on them.
Following another car too closely on a road like that removes the margin a sudden deer-brake needs.
A near miss becomes a rear-end crash instead.
One collision turns into two.
Michigan’s deer season is exactly when that tailgating habit turns costly, with more animals crossing and more drivers braking hard without warning.
The follow-up crash means a second insurance claim on top of the deer-related one.
A few extra car lengths cost a driver nothing on a rural stretch with no traffic pressing from behind.
6. Skipping the Seatbelt for a Short, Familiar Drive
Michigan drivers who skip the seatbelt for a quick trip down a road they know by heart are making one of deer season’s easiest mistakes to avoid.
Michigan State Police’s own deer-crash guidance names the seat belt as a motorist’s best defense once a crash happens.
That defense matters more in the exact weeks deer season packs the road with more animals and more sudden stops.
A driver who skips it and walks away from a minor deer strike takes the wrong lesson from it.
The next one might be the crash that clips a guardrail instead of open field.
An unbelted injury on a routine deer strike turns a simple comprehensive claim into a bodily injury claim too.
7. Watching Only the Road Ahead, Not the Shoulders
Michigan drivers who stare straight down the lane are missing exactly what Michigan State Police tells them to watch.
Troopers say to scan the roadside while driving, especially the woodlots, fencerows, and field edges deer use to feed.
That same guidance points drivers toward the reflection of headlights in a deer’s eyes and its silhouette on the shoulder, not just its body already in the lane.
A driver who only watches the pavement spots the deer at the same moment it’s already committed to crossing.
By then, braking straight is the only option left.
That habit costs the most during the exact weeks Michigan’s deer season pushes more animals toward the road.
A half-second of warning is the difference between slowing down and filing a claim.
8. Trusting a Bumper Deer Whistle
Michigan drivers who mount a deer whistle on the bumper are chasing a fix that research says doesn’t work.
It isn’t protection.
A controlled mule deer study in Utah found no difference in how the animals reacted to a vehicle with a whistle mounted and one without it.
A separate acoustic analysis from the University of Connecticut found the whistles don’t produce sound loud enough for deer to reliably hear over engine and wind noise.
Some drivers stack a whistle with a scent deterrent or a reflective decal, hoping the combination works where one device alone doesn’t.
Neither study tested those combinations.
An unproven gadget doesn’t get extra time just because Michigan’s deer season already started.
A driver who counts on any of it instead of slowing down through a known corridor is swapping a lower crash risk for a feeling.
Psst! How much do you know about Michigan’s deer and the roads they cross? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Michigan Deer & Roads IQ
Answer these questions on Michigan’s deer, their habits, and the roads they cross. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
If you hit a deer with your car in Michigan and want to keep it, what do you need?
9 Arguments Ohio and Michigan Will Never Settle
Think the Ohio-Michigan rivalry starts and ends on a football field every November?
Some of these arguments go back before either state had a governor's mansion, and neither side has budged an inch.
9 Arguments Ohio and Michigan Will Never Settle
10 Things That Only Make Sense If You Grew Up in Michigan
Think you could pass as a true Michigander in under a minute?
Many transplants never manage it, no matter how many winters they've put in.
