Study finds high risk of injury or death in motorcycle-deer collisions

LANSING – Motorcycles and deer don’t mix.

And motorcyclists are especially vulnerable to injury or death when they do, according to a recent study of a decade’s worth of crashes in Michigan.

“Deer represent a significant danger to motorcyclists, especially in rural settings during non-daylight hours,” the study said.

Not surprisingly, severe injuries and deaths were more than twice as common for unhelmeted motorcyclists than for those who wore helmets.

In August, for example, a 60-year-old Harrisville motorcyclist died after a deer emerged from a ditch and ran into him. The victim wasn’t wearing a helmet, according to the Alcona County Sheriff’s Office.

Also in August, an 80-year-old Yale man was fatally injured when a deer hit his motorcycle, the Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office reported. That rider was unhelmeted, too.

And in June, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office said a 26-year-old motorcyclist from Sand Lake was found dead by the roadside a day after colliding with a deer. He had been wearing a helmet.

The study by researchers at the University of Michigan-Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, the Michigan State University Colleges of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine and Wisconsin’s Marshfield Clinical Health System appeared in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Health.

Data drawn from State Police accident reports from January 2012 through December 2021 show that 8.5% of the 30,196 reported motorcycle crashes in the state involved deer.

“Over the nine-year period, there were 2,445 motorcyclists and passengers involved in crashes involving deer,” 509 of whom were severely injured or killed, the study said.

The proportion rose to 10.7% when data from the two most populous counties – Wayne and Oakland – was excluded.

And the figure jumped to 24.1% of crashes during non-daylight – dawn, dusk or night – hours.

Nationally, an estimated one to two million crashes between motorized vehicles and large animals – especially deer – occur annually, the study said. Only 5% of them result in injuries to people. In Michigan, fall is the peak season for deer-vehicle crashes.

“While the risk of injury is low in enclosed vehicles, the relative vulnerability inherent to motorcycle riding is associated with a disproportionately higher risk of significant injuries and even death,” it said.

Michigan had a mandatory helmet law for operators and passengers from 1969 to 2012, when the Legislature repealed it.

The latest State Police figures show the total of overall traffic crashes and deaths on Michigan roads reached 288,880, last year, up 927 from 2023 (287,953). There were 1,099 deaths in 2024 up by four from 2023.

“Unfortunately, in 2024, vulnerable roadway users experienced profound increases in crashes and/or fatalities from 2023’s statistics,” the State Police said in a press release. “Motorcycle-involved crashes (3,187) increased 4% and motorcyclist fatalities (168) increased 2.”

Use or non-use of helmets is a major factor in the severity of injuries to motorcyclists and their passengers, according to the study.

The researchers recommend “a cautious approach” to riding in the dark and taking safety precautions to reduce the risks to operators and their passengers. Strategies to reduce the likelihood of collisions include a staggered riding pattern for those traveling together so multiple people aren’t injured in a single encounter, as well as roadway fencing, wildlife overpasses and underpasses to keep deer off the roads.