The Road Hazard No One Thinks About, Until It's Too Late

Collisions between wildlife and drivers: It’s a scenario that startles thousands of people each year.

As weather.com’s Matt Sampson reports, crashes between vehicles and deer tend to rise in the fall and winter due to hunting and deer mating season.

A new report from from State Farm Insurance says 175 people died in 2012 after colliding with deer on the roads, and the chances of a driver encountering a deer in 2014 has risen by 3 percent.

West Virginia tops the list of states where drivers are most-likely to encounter a deer. Pennsylvania, Montana, Iowa and South Dakota round out the top five.

Hawaii ranks at the very bottom, and the study says people there are more likely to get hit by lightning than hit a deer on the roads.

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