Bucks and Does and Fawns, Oh My!

There are times when being number one just isn't the thing to be: number one in murders for a year, number one in flood/fire damage over a year's time, being named the top dog in The Bottom Tem by Sports Illustrated...you know how it is. Thus it is with joy that I mention a report out today that claims Wisconsin to be number 3 in the nation...in car/deer accidents. I would love to see a figure that indicates how many residents have made claims and how many of them have made multiple claims. I mean, when the week before Thanklsgiving rolls around and some 500,000 hunters hit the woods in Wisconsin, there's bound to be a significant toll (and that's just on the hunters who never leave the cabin except to go to the strip club!).
At any rate, State Farm Insurance released an item today which indicated that in Wisconsin, each of us on the road has a 1 in 99 chance of hitting a deer. I know I've hit two in my years living here (though to be fair, one of them ran into the side of my car in a sort of deer hari-kari). It took my side mirror clean off!
Nationwide, there was a 6.3% increase in the number of deer/auto accidents with an average repair cost of $2900.00. No word on the cost to the deer or its family.
OK, so if Wisconsin is #3, who might the leaders be, you ask? Turns out that West Virginia tops the list with a 1 in 57 chance of hitting a deer on the roadway (again, I don't think this counts deer which one is chasing through the field with a pickup). Michigan garnered the second-place "honor." (much like in football in the Big Ten) Apparently rounding out the field of 50 states...the safest palce in the U.S....Hawaii, a state where your chances of hitting a deer with a car are 1 in 16,624. Those are some LONG odds. Not mentioned are the odds of getting hit by a falling pineapple or being the victim of volcanic activity. Unfortunately, the whole list was not available to me, but I can accept it as probable fact. These people make a living out of predicting things like this...as well as predicting how many claims they can deny after a hurricane.
As for me, I think I'm safe. Having hit two deer in 35 years, I think I've maxxed out. The rest of you had better keep a sharp eye out, though. There are plenty of depressed deer out there.