TEXAS FIRST IN CRASHES WITH ANIMALS:

Far more people have died in Texas motor vehicle collisions with animals than in any other state. Many of these fatalities could have been prevented if motorists had worn seatbelts or motorcyclists had worn helmets. A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on vehicle-animal crashes shows 60 percent of the people killed riding in vehicles weren’t using safety belts and 65 percent of those killed riding on motorcycles weren’t wearing helmets. Texas recorded 161 fatalities in the 12-year study compared to the next most hazardous state, Pennsylvania, which had 85 fatalities during the same time period. The study also showed that the number of vehicle-animal collisions is rising. The Institute’s study showed motorcycles were involved in a third of the fatal collisions, even though other vehicles on the road outnumber motorcycles 40 to 1. Deer were struck in three out of every four crashes in the study that examined vehicle-animal collisions involving a human fatality. The study examined crashes in nine states between 1992 and 2003. More than 1 million deer-vehicle crashes occur each year in the United States resulting in more than $1 billion in vehicle damage.