Animal-Related Insurance Claims On The Rise

Vehicle collisions with animals may be down slightly from 2016 to 2017, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). But overall, the number of animal-related crashes is up six percent over the past four years.

2014-2017 Animal-Related Crash Claims

The nonprofit insurance group recently released a report on the number of animal-related insurance losses between the years of 2014-2017.

Overall, a total of 1,740,425 animal-related insurance claims were filed over that four-year period. 99.9 percent of those involved vehicles. (The NICB notes that many people don�t carry insurance coverage for that type of event, so it predicts the number is in reality even higher.)

Credit: NIDB

Top 5 Animals Involved in Crashes

About 640,000 of those claims specified one of the top five animals involved and over the four-year period, 91 percent of those claims involved deer.

While all animal-related claims went up six percent over the four-year period, those that specified a deer was involved actually declined by 30 percent.

The top five animals involved in vehicle collisions were:

1. Deer (584,165)


2. Raccoons (22,644)


3. Dogs (20,610)


4. Turkeys (7,289)


5. Coyotes (6,023)

The top five states where these incidents occurred were:

1. Pennsylvania (145,728)


2. New York (115,670)


3. Texas (105,036)


4. Wisconsin (81,282)


5. North Carolina (79,252)

The top five cities for these encounters were:

1. San Antonio (3,945)


2. Austin, TX. (2,452)


3. New York (2,442)


4. Pittsburgh (2,115)


5. Rochester, NY (1,929).

Most crashes occur late in the year during the months of October, November, and December.

Photo Credit: State Farm