Automobile collisions involving wildlife can be deeply traumatizing and costly for drivers and their passengers, but a new report from State Farm reveals just how common of an occurrence such crashes are.
In a blog post on its website, State Farm said that US drivers have hit an estimated 2.1 million animals between July 2020 and June 2021. This number is up 7.2% from the previous twelve months, the insurer noted.
While crashes between automobiles and animals can occur in any state and happen any time of the year, State Farm did observe based on insurance data that the most dangerous months for animal collisions are the last three -- November, October, and December, in order of their collision risk.
In terms of estimated animal collision claims numbers within the 2020-2021 period, the top five states were Pennsylvania (166,404), Michigan (132,387), Texas (131,373), California (104,767) and North Carolina (98,409).
State Farm pointed out that in Texas and California’s cases their estimated claims numbers saw increases of 19% and 65%, respectively, from the previous period.