Arizona recorded 1,830 vehicle collisions with animals in 2022, according to ADOT. Those crashes injured 280 people and killed four, and ADOT aims its warning at drivers on rural roads and highways, the kind we drive every day up here.
An average bull elk weighs about 900 pounds and a cow about 500. North of Prescott they share the roads with mule deer and pronghorn, and on a lot of Yavapai County range, cattle too. ADOT tells drivers to watch hardest at dusk and dawn, and anyone who drives 89 toward Chino Valley or I-17 above Camp Verde after dark knows why.
Your safety comes before your deductible, every time. ADOT, passing on Arizona Game and Fish's guidance, says to stay in your lane and brake firmly rather than swerve. The exception is a very large animal, like a bull elk, a horse, or a cow, when there's no oncoming traffic and the shoulder is safe on both sides. That's the driving advice, and it comes from people who study these crashes for a living.
The insurance side is simpler than most people expect. If you hit the animal, the claim goes under comprehensive, the same coverage that handles hail, theft, and a rock through the windshield. If you swerve to miss it and hit a guardrail, a tree, or the ditch, the claim goes under collision. Same night, same animal, two different coverages.
Those two coverages often carry different deductibles, and the classification decides which one you pay. It also shapes how the claim sits on your loss history, which follows you into every renewal.
For years I let people set both deductibles off the premium difference alone, usually the same number on each because it was easy. That was box-checking, and I was the one holding the pen. Up here, comprehensive is the coverage that answers for animals, glass, and monsoon hail, and it deserves its own conversation.
If you carry liability only, neither coverage is there. The damage to your own vehicle is yours, and if the car is financed, your lender almost certainly requires both.
Pull your auto declarations page and look at the comprehensive and collision deductibles side by side. Call (928) 499-6644 or stop in at 1781 AZ-69 Ste #3, Prescott, AZ 86301 and we'll set each one for the roads you drive.
More on Auto insurance in Arizona.