Deer Collision Season in Virginia

1 in 81, according to State Farm’s 2025-2026 analysis of animal collision claims, which ranks Virginia 8th of 51 (the 50 states and the District of Columbia) and places it in the high likelihood category. The national figure is 1 in 145. That is a higher likelihood than 1 in 82 in the 2024-2025 edition.

33 from 2015 to 2024, about 3.3 a year, with 35 deaths, according to NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That is 0.4 percent of all fatal crashes in the state, and 22nd 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. November is the month with the most fatal animal crashes in Virginia, 7 of 33 across the ten years. The deer rut in Virginia runs October 1 to December 31. Peak, as the agency describes it: mid-November.

The deer rut in Virginia runs October 1 to December 31. Peak, as the agency describes it: mid-November. That is the timing the Virginia Department of Wildlife 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 Virginia Beach moves from 6:02 PM on the Saturday to 5:01 PM on the Sunday, computed with the U.S. Naval Observatory method.

Mostly after dark. Of Virginia’s 33 fatal animal crashes from 2015 to 2024, 70 percent happened in the dark and 6.1 percent at dusk or dawn, and 48 percent happened between 5 PM and midnight.

Virginia deer range from the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley to the Tidewater, and the state sits eighth in the State Farm ranking.