Does Car Insurance Cover Hitting a Deer?

Like life, nature happens! Unfortunately, sometimes things happen outside of our control and are simply by chance. This type of incident is exactly what insurance is meant to help us recover from.

If you have comprehensive coverage on your vehicle and you strike a deer you would indeed be covered. If you do not strike the deer and swerved crashing into another car for example that would be covered under collision and is a different coverage than comprehensive.

For this example let's assume you do strike the deer. Keep in mind that you will be responsible for your deductible. So if the cost to repair your car is $4,000, let's say, and your deductible is $500 you'll be responsible for the first $500 of the repairs and the insurance company would be responsible for the other $3,500.

The only scenario where that would not be true would be if the car was deemed totaled by the insurance company. In that case they would pay you the difference between what they considered the car to be valued minus your deductible.

Insurance companies retain the right to pay their customers whichever method is cheaper for them. So if it costs them less to total your car that is the route they would take and it's within their rights to do so.

According to the Insurance Information Institute your chances of hitting a deer between October and December are double, so pay extra attention this fall.

For more information on Deer Accident Statistics refer to the III: http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/deer-vehicle-collisions