Michigan Deer and Animal Collision Attorney

A deer clears the tree line, and there is no time to react. What follows is a wrecked vehicle, an injury, and an insurance company asking questions that do not seem to connect.

Michigan recorded 58,324 deer-involved crashes in 2024, according to Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, the most recent year with a compiled deer analysis. That is 20.2 percent of every traffic crash in the state. Those crashes injured 1,816 people and killed 14, and seven of the 14 were motorcyclists.

Most deer strikes damage a vehicle and nothing more. The ones that hurt someone badly usually involve a motorcycle, a vehicle that left the roadway, or a second collision after the driver swerved.

Auto accident attorneys at Vahdat Weisman Law help injured Michigan drivers, riders, and passengers pursue the benefits and claims available after an animal collision. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover for you.

Can I Get Benefits When No Other Driver Was Involved?

Michigan’s no-fault system pays medical and wage benefits without asking who caused the crash. An insurer is liable for personal protection insurance benefits for “accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle,” and subsection (2) provides that those benefits are paid without regard to fault (MCL 500.3105). A single-vehicle crash with a deer falls within that language, so the absence of another driver does not by itself defeat your claim.

Not everyone is eligible. MCL 500.3113 excludes several categories, including an owner or registrant who drove without the required security, certain non-residents, and people excluded under a policy. Eligibility is worth confirming.

Coverage amounts vary. Since the 2019 reform, Michigan drivers pick a PIP medical limit (MCL 500.3107c): $50,000 for certain Medicare and Medicaid situations, $250,000, $500,000, or unlimited, with unlimited applying by default where no selection was made. Some drivers have opted out of PIP medical entirely.

PIP covers more than medical bills. Depending on eligibility, it can include allowable expenses, work loss, replacement services, attendant care, and, where someone died, funeral and burial expenses and survivor’s loss (MCL 500.3108).

Priority rules decide who pays. A claim ordinarily goes to your own policy, or to a spouse’s or a resident relative’s policy, with the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan available where no policy applies (MCL 500.3114). Passengers are covered by these rules too.

If You Were on a Motorcycle or a Moped

A motorcycle is not a “motor vehicle” under MCL 500.3101, and a moped is a separate category again. That distinction decides whether there is PIP coverage.

A motorcyclist’s PIP claim follows its own priority order, and it requires an accident showing evidence of the involvement of a motor vehicle (MCL 500.3114(5)). If you went down avoiding a deer and no car was involved anywhere in the sequence, there may be no PIP claim at all, leaving whatever optional medical coverage the motorcycle policy carried. Our motorcycle accident page covers the priority order in detail.

Which Coverage Pays to Fix Your Vehicle

Michigan’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services says in its consumer guide that comprehensive insurance “pays for your car if it is stolen or for repairs if it is hit by a falling object, collides with an animal, or is damaged in a fire, flood or by vandals.”

Comprehensive coverage is optional in Michigan. If you carry only the required coverages, an animal strike is not covered. Michigan’s mini-tort provision allows recovery of up to $3,000 in uninsured vehicle damage from an at-fault motorist (MCL 500.3135(3)(e)), but it requires an at-fault motorist. A deer is not one. Our mini-tort page explains where that claim does apply.

The deductible treatment also differs. MCL 500.3037 distinguishes limited, broad form, and standard collision coverage, and requires broad form policies to waive the deductible where the operator is not “substantially at fault,” meaning more than 50 percent of the cause. The same statute provides that collision damage does not include losses customarily covered under comprehensive. An animal strike is handled on the comprehensive side, with its own deductible and no fault-based waiver.

If the car swerved and struck a tree, a guardrail, or another vehicle, that impact falls under collision coverage and, where another vehicle was involved, ordinary fault rules. If it damaged someone else’s tangible property, such as a fence or a building, Michigan property protection insurance may apply (MCL 500.3121).

If You Swerved

Michigan State Police guidance is direct: “Do not swerve! It is instinct to do this, but trying to avoid a deer may cause a loss of control of the vehicle and a more serious traffic crash.”

Michigan law accounts for the instinct through the sudden emergency doctrine. The circumstances have to be “unusual or unsuspected,” with “unusual” meaning the situation varies from the everyday traffic routine and “unsuspected” requiring that the peril “had not been in clear view for any significant length of time” (Vander Laan v. Miedema, 385 Mich 226 (1971)). A sudden emergency not of your own making can rebut the rear-end presumption of negligence in MCL 257.402, which is itself a rebuttable presumption rather than a finding of liability.

Michigan case law applies it to deer specifically, and the outcome turns on what the driver knew before the animal entered the road.

Where a swerve led to a collision with someone else, two further rules matter. Noneconomic damages are available only for death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement (MCL 500.3135(1)). And comparative fault reduces damages, with noneconomic damages barred outright for anyone whose own fault exceeds the aggregate fault of everyone else (MCL 600.2959).

When the Animal Had an Owner

A deer has no owner. Cattle, horses, and certain other livestock do, which changes your options.

The running-at-large act covers cattle, horses, sheep, swine, mules, burros and goats (MCL 433.11). An animal “shall not run at large in this state,” and an owner “shall not permit or enable his animal to run at large” (MCL 433.12).

Vehicle damage and injuries take two different paths.

Vehicle damage. There is a statutory remedy against the owner for property loss caused by a covered animal running at large, applied as strict liability without proof of negligence (MCL 433.13; Auto-Owners Ins Co v Austin, 147 Mich App 28 (1985)).

Bodily injury. That shortcut does not carry over. Because the Legislature supplied a civil remedy for property damage, a violation of MCL 433.12 does not create a negligence presumption in a personal injury action (Gould v Atwell, 205 Mich App 154 (1994)). Your injury claim proceeds under common-law negligence, which asks whether the keeper exercised reasonable control and whether the injury was reasonably foreseeable (Trager v Thor, 445 Mich 95 (1994)).

“Owner” is also broader than the person on the title. A keeper, a person harboring the animal, a farm operator, a transporter, or an occupier of the premises may each be responsible.

If a Loose Dog Caused the Crash

Dogs are not among the animals listed in MCL 433.11, so the running-at-large act does not apply to them. A crash caused by a loose dog is analyzed under Michigan’s dog law, including the leash and straying provisions at MCL 287.262, any applicable local ordinance, and common-law negligence. Michigan’s dog-bite statute addresses bites and is not the provision that governs a vehicle collision. Our dog bite liability page covers bite claims.

How Long You Have

The “one year” figure people repeat is not the whole rule.

MCL 500.3145 works in four parts. An action for PIP benefits generally may not be commenced more than one year after the accident, unless written notice of injury was given to the insurer within one year or the insurer previously made a PIP payment. Where notice was given or payment made, the action may be commenced within one year of the most recent allowable expense, work loss, or survivor’s loss incurred. Separately, benefits may not be recovered for any portion of the loss incurred more than one year before the action was commenced. And the applicable period is tolled from the date of a specific claim for payment until the insurer formally denies the claim.

A liability claim against an animal’s owner is generally subject to the three-year period in MCL 600.5805(2), and a mini-tort claim has its own timing.

What to Do Now

Report it. If the crash injured or killed anyone, or caused apparent property damage of $1,000 or more, you must report it immediately to the nearest police station or officer (MCL 257.622).

Photograph what you safely can: the impact point, hair or hide on the vehicle, the roadway, lighting, and sight lines. Note the time, the location, and the direction of travel, and get names from witnesses before they leave.

Get medical attention if you are hurt. A gap between the crash and the first treatment note turns into an argument about causation.

If you want to keep the deer, you may, through more than one route: a salvage tag, or notice to the Department of Natural Resources or local law enforcement of the intent to keep it (MCL 324.40115). The driver has first choice to take possession. Spotted fawns and a number of other species are excluded.

When Deer Crashes Happen

November alone accounted for 10,017 deer crashes in 2024, 17.2 percent of the year’s total, and October through December together made up 42.9 percent. Roughly 80 percent occur on two-lane roads, and crashes cluster between 8 and 9 in the morning and 6 and 9 in the evening.

Both sides use that seasonality: it shows a rural two-lane road at dusk in November carries real risk, and it supports a defense argument that a driver should have been alert to it.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

These claims fail most often because the wrong question gets asked first. An adjuster answers a vehicle-damage question, and you come away believing there is no claim at all. A rider is told no PIP applies before anyone checks every policy in the priority order. We work the coverages and the statutes in order, and where the coverage or the defendant is not there, you will hear that early.

From our Livonia office, we represent clients across Michigan. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars. Our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, we work in English and Spanish, and we are available 24/7.

Frequently Asked Questions

• My insurer denied my injury claim because “the deer wasn’t insured.” Is that right? That reasoning runs two coverages together. Fixing the car is a comprehensive question. Medical bills are a PIP question, and PIP pays without regard to fault and does not require another driver. Bring the denial letter.
• I swerved to miss a deer and hit another car. Am I going to be blamed? That turns on facts developed after the crash, not on a rule. Michigan’s sudden emergency doctrine can apply where the peril was unusual or unsuspected and not of your own making. Do not concede fault to an adjuster before those facts are established.
• I was just a passenger. Do I have a claim? Usually yes for no-fault benefits, and the priority rules decide which insurer pays. Whether you also have a claim against a driver depends on fault and on whether the injury meets Michigan’s threshold.
• A cow came through a fence, and I hit it. Is my car damage handled the same way as my injuries?No. Michigan’s animals-at-large statute gives you a property-damage remedy against the owner, applied as strict liability. Your injury claim is an ordinary negligence claim about whether the keeper exercised reasonable control and whether the harm was foreseeable, so the fence history, prior escapes, and any complaints matter.

About the Author

Jordan S. Vahdat is a founding partner of Vahdat Weisman Law in Livonia and handles negligence, premises liability, auto accident, and insurance dispute cases. He has been admitted to all Michigan state courts since 2014, practices in the Eastern District of Michigan, and has served as a case evaluator for the Washtenaw Circuit Trial Court and the 15th District Court since 2020. He is fluent in Spanish.

Talk to a Michigan Deer Collision Lawyer

If you or someone you love was hurt in a crash with a deer or another animal, call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff. Our wrongful death page covers fatal crashes.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

Reviewed by Jordan S. Vahdat, Vahdat Weisman Law. Last reviewed September 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.