You Hit a Deer on I-40. Now What?

Before it ever happens: don't swerve

This is the one piece of advice worth knowing ahead of time, because you won't have time to think it through in the moment. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says flatly: never swerve to avoid a deer. Swerving confuses the deer about which way to run, and it's what puts drivers into oncoming traffic, into a ditch, or into a tree.

Brake, hold the wheel straight, and stay on the road. A deer in the grille is a body-shop problem. A head-on with a truck coming the other way on Highway 107 is a different kind of problem entirely.

Two other things AGFC points out that are worth remembering around here: deer move most during the fall rut and when fawns are being weaned, and shortened days in the fall put rush hour right in the middle of the time deer are moving. Use your high beams when there's no oncoming traffic — it gives you that extra second to see eyes at the edge of the road.

The first five minutes after

1. Get the vehicle onto the shoulder if it will still move, and turn on your hazards. On the interstate, that shoulder is not a safe place to stand around — stay in the vehicle with your seat belt on unless there's a reason to get out.
2. Call 911 immediately if anybody is hurt. AGFC's guidance is the same: emergency services first if there are injuries, local law enforcement if it's damage only.
3. Don't approach the deer. An injured deer can still hurt you badly, and it can still get up and run into traffic.
4. Photograph the vehicle, the animal, the road, and the mile marker or nearest exit once you can do it safely.
5. Call the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at 800-482-9262 to report the road kill. AGFC uses road-killed deer to monitor for chronic wasting disease, so that call does more good than you'd think.
6. Call your agent or carrier and report it while the details are fresh.

One question AGFC gets asked constantly: can you keep the deer for the meat? Their answer has been yes, and it doesn't count against a hunter's season limit — a wildlife officer records the incident, and they may also know a family nearby who'd take it. Rules do get updated, so ask when you make that call to 800-482-9262.

Comprehensive or collision?

This is where the coverage question actually lands, and the answer surprises people.

Hitting an animal is generally handled under comprehensive coverage — the same part of the policy that deals with hail, theft, and falling objects — rather than collision coverage. Comprehensive normally carries its own deductible.

But here's the wrinkle that catches folks: if you swerve to miss the deer and hit a guardrail, a ditch, a tree, or another vehicle, that's a different kind of loss, and it's typically treated as a collision claim instead, with the collision deductible. Same deer, same second of your life, potentially a different deductible.

And if you carry liability-only coverage on that vehicle, neither one applies. Liability pays for covered claims other people make against you. It doesn't pay to fix your own truck after a deer walks out in front of it.

None of that is a coverage determination on your particular loss. What's covered depends on your policy, your endorsements, your deductibles, and the facts as the carrier reviews them. But it's the framework we'd use to start the conversation with you.

Things worth checking before deer season, not during

• Do you carry comprehensive on that vehicle? Plenty of older paid-off vehicles around here are liability-only, and that's sometimes the right call — but it should be a decision, not a surprise.
• What's the comprehensive deductible? A deer strike on a newer vehicle can run well past it. On an older one, it may not.
• Do you have rental reimbursement? A body shop backed up after a rough fall can have your vehicle for a while.
• Is roadside assistance on the policy? Worth knowing before you're standing on the shoulder of I-40 at 6 a.m.
• Which vehicles have which coverage? On a multi-vehicle household policy, the teenager's car and the work truck often don't match.

When to call us

If you've already hit one, call us and we'll walk you through reporting it and what to expect. If you haven't, call us before fall and let's look at what's actually on each vehicle. It's a five-minute conversation that's a whole lot easier to have now than at the side of the road.