Deer Collision Season in Alabama

1 in 109, according to State Farm’s 2025-2026 analysis of animal collision claims, which ranks Alabama 21st of 51 (the 50 states and the District of Columbia) and places it in the medium likelihood category. The national figure is 1 in 145. That is a higher likelihood than 1 in 118 in the 2024-2025 edition.

25 from 2015 to 2024, about 2.5 a year, with 27 deaths, according to NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That is 0.3 percent of all fatal crashes in the state, and 26th among the 50 states by count. FARS counts crashes with any animal, not deer alone.

Nationally, State Farm names November, October and December as the peak months for large animal collisions. October is the month with the most fatal animal crashes in Alabama, 4 of 25 across the ten years. The deer rut in Alabama runs January 18 to February 14. Peak, as the agency describes it: the last two weeks of January through the first two weeks of February.

The deer rut in Alabama runs January 18 to February 14. Peak, as the agency describes it: the last two weeks of January through the first two weeks of February. That is the timing the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources publishes, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ties the autumn collision peak to the rut, when deer are most active.

About an hour. On November 7, 2027, sunset in Huntsville moves from 5:48 PM on the Saturday to 4:47 PM on the Sunday, computed with the U.S. Naval Observatory method.

Mostly after dark. Of Alabama’s 25 fatal animal crashes from 2015 to 2024, 72 percent happened in the dark and 8 percent at dusk or dawn, and 44 percent happened between 5 PM and midnight.

White-tailed deer live in every Alabama county, and across much of the state the rut runs in January and February, months after the November peak farther north.