Deer Crashes in Michigan: Who Pays for Your Injuries and Your Car

You hit a deer in Michigan, or swerved to miss one, and there’s no other driver to exchange information with. If you’re shaken and unsure who pays, that’s normal. Here’s the plain answer. Your injuries are usually covered by personal injury protection (PIP), the no-fault coverage in your own household’s auto policy, which pays regardless of fault (MCL 500.3105, 500.3114). No-fault doesn’t fix your car: hitting the deer is usually a comprehensive claim, and swerving into a tree is usually collision. There’s usually no one to sue. Give your insurer written notice of any injury within one year (MCL 500.3145(1)).

You’re not alone: Michigan had 58,271 reported deer crashes in 2025, injuring 1,724 people and killing 13, with the most in November (9,821) and October (8,432) (Michigan Traffic Crash Facts). These rules are current as of September 2026.

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What should you do right after hitting a deer?

The Michigan State Police’s Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) and the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS), the state’s insurance regulator, advise:

1. Get out of traffic. Turn on your flashers and move to the shoulder, or, if the car can’t move, get out carefully and stand at the side of the road, away from traffic.
2. Stay away from the deer. A hurt deer can be dangerous, and one that looks dead may only be stunned.
3. Call the police and ask for the report number; your insurer may need it to start your claim.
4. Take photos once it’s safe of the road, the damage and any injuries.
5. Check the car before driving it, and call a tow if it seems unsafe.
6. Report the crash to your insurer.

If anyone is hurt, get medical care right away. See also how to preserve evidence after a crash.

Do you have to report hitting a deer to the police?

Often, yes. The driver must report a crash immediately to the nearest or most convenient police station or officer if anyone was hurt or killed or the property damage appears to total $1,000 or more (MCL 257.622), and DIFS says deer-crash repairs can cost thousands of dollars. See how to get your Michigan crash report.

Can you keep the deer?

Generally, yes, if it died in the crash (or was put down afterward as the law allows), unless it’s a spotted fawn, and the driver has first claim. Get a salvage tag from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), or promptly tell the DNR or a local law enforcement agency, by phone or on the DNR’s website, that you’re keeping it; a driver calling 911 to report the crash can say so on that call instead (MCL 324.40115). The DNR can suspend salvage in disease-affected areas.

Who pays for your injuries after a deer crash in Michigan?

Usually your own no-fault insurance. PIP pays for injuries arising out of the use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle, without regard to fault, so no other driver has to be involved (MCL 500.3105(1), (2)). It covers reasonably necessary medical care up to the policy’s limit and, for three years, generally 85% of lost income (capped) and up to $20 a day for household help (MCL 500.3107(1), 500.3107c).

Drivers and passengers follow the same rule: a policy naming you, your spouse or a relative you live with pays, yours first (MCL 500.3114(1)). So a passenger usually claims from their own household’s policy, not the driver’s. With no household policy, you claim through the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan within one year; it caps medical care at $250,000 in most cases (MCL 500.3114(4), 500.3172(7), 500.3174). Employer vehicles and vehicles in the business of carrying passengers can follow other rules (MCL 500.3114(2), (3)). See what Michigan PIP pays and which insurer owes it.

What if you swerved and hit a tree or ended up in a ditch?

PIP still pays. Fault doesn’t matter, and the law says you don’t cause an injury intentionally when you act to avoid injury to yourself, someone else or property (MCL 500.3105(2), (4)). Swerving affects which coverage pays for your car, not your PIP.

What if you were on a motorcycle?

PIP may not be available. The no-fault law doesn’t count a motorcycle as a “motor vehicle,” so a crash involving only a motorcycle and a deer is a “motorcycle accident” (MCL 500.3101(3)(h), (i)). DIFS says PIP may not be available without a motor vehicle involved, and the Assigned Claims Plan has the same requirement (MCL 500.3105(1), 500.3172(1)). You’d turn to your health insurance and any medical coverage you bought with your motorcycle policy (MCL 500.3103(2)). If a car or truck was involved, see Michigan motorcycle accident law. Riders were 8 of the 13 people killed in Michigan deer crashes in 2025 (Michigan Traffic Crash Facts).

What’s the deadline to protect your PIP benefits?

One year. Unless the insurer has already paid benefits, you can’t sue for PIP more than a year after the crash without having given it written notice of the injury within that year. The notice needs your name and address and, in ordinary language, who was hurt and the time, place and nature of the injury (MCL 500.3145(1), (4)). If benefits are denied or cut off, see what to do when a Michigan PIP claim is denied.

Not sure which insurer owes you PIP, or whether your motorcycle crash qualifies? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

Is hitting a deer collision or comprehensive?

Usually comprehensive. Michigan no-fault won’t repair your own car unless it was properly parked when another car hit it, so only optional collision and comprehensive coverage pay (DIFS). DIFS says comprehensive pays when your car “collides with an animal,” and Triple-I, an insurance industry research group, notes that collisions with deer are covered under comprehensive. So deer collision insurance usually means comprehensive. Collision pays when you hit another car or an object, such as a tree, a pole or a guardrail, or flip over (Triple-I).

Policies differ, so check yours with your agent or insurer, as DIFS suggests, and if you hit both the deer and something else, ask in writing which coverage applies to which damage. With no other driver, your claims go to your own insurer, which handles claims like these every day; its first answer is its position, not the final word.

Which kind of collision coverage do you have?

Michigan insurers must offer new applicants limited and broad form collision, and may offer standard collision (MCL 500.3037(1), (2)). Limited pays only if the driver wasn’t “substantially at fault,” meaning more than 50% of the cause; broad form pays either way but waives its deductible only then (MCL 500.3037(1), (8)(b); DIFS). After a swerve with no other driver, the insurer may find you more than 50% at fault; DIFS’s collision chart gives hitting a tree as an example of that. Limited collision would then pay nothing, and broad form would charge your deductible, so ask the insurer to explain any fault finding in writing. Our mini-tort guide compares the collision types.

Can you use the mini-tort after hitting a deer?

Usually not. The mini-tort recovers up to $3,000 of vehicle damage insurance didn’t cover, such as your deductible, from the driver who caused a crash (MCL 500.3135(3)(e), (4)). A deer isn’t a driver. If another driver damaged your car, see how a Michigan mini-tort claim works.

Can you sue anyone after hitting a deer?

Usually not. A claim needs someone at fault, and nearly every reported deer crash in Michigan involves just one vehicle: the 58,271 reported in 2025 involved 58,493 vehicles in all, so at most a few hundred involved a second vehicle (Michigan Traffic Crash Facts).

You may have a claim if another driver’s carelessness played a part, such as rear-ending you after you braked for a deer. Michigan presumes the rear driver was negligent unless the evidence shows otherwise. But the owner of the car that was hit can’t rely on that if the crash happened between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise and the car had no lighted lamp reasonably visible to drivers behind it (MCL 257.402). A passenger may also have a claim against a careless driver of their own car. Against an at-fault driver, you can claim (MCL 500.3135):

• pain and suffering, only if the crash caused death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement (how the threshold works);
• economic losses above PIP’s limits;
• up to $3,000 of vehicle damage insurance didn’t cover.

More than 50% fault bars pain-and-suffering and mini-tort damages, and less reduces them (MCL 500.3135(2)(b), (4)(a)). Most injury lawsuits are due within three years (MCL 600.5805(2)). See every Michigan injury deadline and how PIP and a lawsuit fit together.

When does a lawyer help after a deer crash?

Most reported deer crashes cause property damage only (56,710 of the 58,271 in 2025), and you can usually handle a car claim yourself. Advice makes more sense when:

• your PIP claim is denied, delayed or cut off;
• your injuries are serious, or you need attendant or long-term care;
• you were on a motorcycle and the insurer says PIP doesn’t apply;
• another vehicle was involved.

In Michigan, a contingency fee in an injury or no-fault case can’t exceed one-third of the recovery after case costs, and it must be in writing (MCR 8.121(B), (C), (F)); see how injury lawyers get paid. To compare firms, see Michigan car accident lawyers.

Seriously hurt in a deer crash, or was another driver involved? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What to do next

1. Get medical care, and keep every bill and record.
2. Report the crash to the police and your insurer.
3. Send written notice of any injury within one year to your PIP insurer, or to the Assigned Claims Plan if no policy covers you (MCL 500.3145(1), 500.3174).
4. Ask your insurer, in writing, which coverage applies to your car.
5. Get a free case review if PIP is denied, you’re seriously hurt, you were on a motorcycle or another driver was involved.

What waiting can cost

• Your PIP benefits. Without written notice or a payment within a year, you can lose the right to sue for them (MCL 500.3145(1)).
• Older bills. A PIP lawsuit generally can’t recover losses from more than a year before it’s filed (MCL 500.3145(2)).
• A claim against another driver. Most are due within three years (MCL 600.5805(2)).
• Proof. Cars get repaired and witnesses move on.

What a good outcome looks like

Your car is fixed under the right coverage, at the deductible you expected. Your PIP insurer pays your medical bills and lost wages on time while you heal, and any claim against another driver is filed on time. From wondering who pays when a deer caused the crash to knowing which coverage fixes your car, which insurer pays your bills and when to send your notice.

For more, see our car, truck and motorcycle accident guides and Michigan personal injury law in plain English.

Updated October 5, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.