Here’s where most Vermont parents get tripped up first: your fifteen-year-old with a shiny new learner’s permit legally cannot sign an insurance contract. They’re a minor. That means the only way to get them covered is to add them to your existing policy as a household driver, with you as the responsible adult on the paperwork. I walk families through this step constantly, and it’s one of the first things we sort out when someone comes in asking what actually needs to change on their auto policy once a teen is in the house — because skipping it isn’t a paperwork technicality, it’s a real coverage gap if your teen is ever behind the wheel unlisted.

Vermont’s graduated licensing rules add another layer most people don’t think about until they’re living it. Your teen needs to be at least 15 to get that learner’s permit, and they can only drive with a supervising adult in the front seat — someone unimpaired, at least 25 years old. Before they can move up to a Junior Driver’s License, they need to log 40 hours of supervised practice, including 10 hours at night and 10 in bad weather, which around here usually means mud season or the first icy morning of the year. This is exactly the kind of local detail we build into the coverage conversation, because a kid logging night hours on Route 7 in November is a different risk profile than one practicing in a parking lot in July.

Once your teen actually gets that Junior License, the premium bump is real, and I won’t pretend otherwise. According to the Insurance Information Institute, adding a teen driver can raise a family’s auto insurance premium by 50 to 100 percent. That’s a big jump, and it’s the number that makes parents’ stomachs drop when they call me. Allstate’s own guidance for parents makes the same point plainly: a new teen driver is a milestone for the family and a real cost shift for the policy, both at once. But here’s what most people don’t know going in, and it’s the reason we always start this conversation early instead of waiting for the surprise: nationally, keeping your teen on your existing family policy runs about $2,718 a year on average, while insuring that same teen on a standalone policy of their own averages around $5,108. Staying on your policy isn’t just simpler — it’s usually thousands of dollars cheaper, because your teen borrows every discount you’ve already earned. A minor can’t legally hold a standalone contract on their own anyway, which is one more reason this decision isn’t really optional for Vermont families.

Vermont actually treats families a little more gently than a lot of the country on this front. A state-minimum coverage policy for a 16-year-old here averages around $1,388 a year, compared to over $5,000 in a high-cost state like Louisiana. That’s real relief, but it’s still a number on top of a number, which is exactly why we shop your teen’s coverage across the carriers we work with rather than just letting your renewal auto-adjust — a five-minute conversation in our Milton office can be the difference between overpaying and finding the right fit for your family’s actual budget.

The good news is there’s more room to bring that cost down than most parents realize. The single biggest lever is grades — a good student discount, typically available for a B- average or better, is consistently the largest teen-specific discount out there, and it’s one of the first things I ask about when a parent brings their kid in. Allstate lays out several of these levers for parents, including good grades, completed driver’s education, and staying accident-free. But here’s a wrinkle worth knowing that a website won’t always catch: some major carriers’ standard defensive-driving discount simply isn’t offered in Vermont at all, and eligibility rules for student and away-at-school discounts vary carrier by carrier. That’s exactly the kind of state-specific fine print that gets missed when you’re comparing quotes online instead of talking to someone who works Vermont policies every day. It’s part of why I always tell parents that a national quote-comparison site can’t replace an actual conversation about what applies in your zip code.

I think about this part of the job differently than most people expect from an insurance agent, because I’ve sat on both sides of that kitchen table. I remember what it felt like watching my own kids head out for their first solo drives, and now I’ve got grandkids working their way toward that same milestone. There’s a particular kind of quiet you feel in the house the first time your teenager backs out of the driveway alone — pride and pure nerves, tangled together, and I don’t think that feeling ever fully goes away no matter how many times you’ve been through it. That’s the same feeling I see across the desk from Milton to Burlington every fall, and it’s exactly why I don’t just want to sell a policy — I want that parent to drive home actually feeling better than when they walked in.

So if your kid just came home with a permit, or you’re bracing for the Junior License conversation this winter, don’t wait for the renewal notice to figure out what it’s going to cost you. Come talk to us at Cruz Insurance Agency, and we’ll go through your teen’s specific situation, compare it across the carriers we work with, and make sure every discount you actually qualify for gets applied — not just the ones a website assumes you have. My dad built this agency in 1965 on the idea that insurance works best when it’s personal, and helping a nervous parent protect their new driver without blowing up the family budget is about as personal as this job gets.

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So let’s settle this once and for all, because I explain it about six times a week between October and December: hitting a deer or a moose is not a collision claim. I know, I know — it feels like a collision. Your car collided with a large mammal at 45 miles an hour. But in insurance-speak, “collision coverage” only applies when you hit another car or a stationary object, like a mailbox, a guardrail, or — ask me how I know — a very determined snowbank. Animals fall under comprehensive coverage, the part of your policy that handles the stuff that just happens to you: theft, fire, flying rocks, hailstorms, and yes, wildlife with a death wish and no concept of headlights.

Why deer and moose are Vermont’s own special insurance headache

We’re not West Virginia (they hold the dubious honor of the highest odds of an animal strike in the country), but Vermont drivers know the drill. Dirt roads cutting through farmland, dusk commutes on Route 7, mud season turning every shoulder into a deer buffet — we’ve got the ingredients. Nationally, drivers file somewhere around 1.7 million animal-collision claims a year, and the busiest stretch runs from October through December, when deer are on the move. That lines up exactly with when my phone starts ringing off the hook.

Moose add their own flavor of chaos. A deer strike usually means a smashed bumper and a very sad grille. A moose strike means the animal’s body is roughly at windshield height, because their legs are so long the impact tends to come in high rather than low. It’s a different kind of accident entirely, and it’s exactly why I sit down with every single Vermont client — new drivers, longtime customers, my own grandkids when they finally get their licenses — and ask the same question: “Do you actually have comprehensive coverage, or did somebody talk you into dropping it to save twelve bucks a month?”

The mistake I see constantly

Here’s the thing that keeps me up at night, or at least keeps me typing angry follow-up emails: liability-only policies do not cover animal strikes. Full stop. If you’re driving an older car and you decided comprehensive wasn’t worth the premium, an encounter with a deer means you’re paying for that repair — or that replacement — entirely out of pocket. I’ve watched people cry actual tears over a totaled Subaru and a $6,000 repair estimate because nobody ever explained the difference to them. That’s not going to happen to my clients if I can help it. When someone walks into our Milton office, I don’t just sell a policy and shake hands. I walk through what you drive, where you drive it, and whether a wildlife encounter would wreck your finances or just your Tuesday. That’s the whole philosophy behind how we build out an auto insurance policy that’s actually shaped around Vermont driving conditions, not some generic template built for a driver in Phoenix who’s never seen a moose in his life.

What I tell people to actually do

If you do hit one, here’s my short version of the speech I give over the phone at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday: get your car off the road if you safely can, put your hazards on, and do not go poke the animal. A wounded deer or moose is unpredictable and can absolutely still hurt you. Call the local police or state troopers, especially if the animal is blocking the road or you’re not sure your car is drivable. Take photos. Then call us — or your carrier — before you do anything to the vehicle. I’ve had clients try to “just get it looked at real quick” at a shop before filing, and it makes the claims process messier than it needs to be.

And please, for the love of all things holy, don’t swerve to avoid the deer. I say this every single autumn and I’ll say it again: braking firmly and staying in your lane is safer than yanking the wheel and putting yourself into oncoming traffic or a tree. That’s not folk wisdom, that’s straight from the highway safety researchers who study this stuff for a living, and the data backs it up — a huge share of the serious injuries and fatalities in animal-related crashes happen when drivers swerve, not from the initial impact itself, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Why I actually enjoy this part of the job

People sometimes ask why an insurance agency owner gets this animated about wildlife collisions. Honestly? I grew up around horses. I still ride and train them, and I’ve spent my whole life around large animals that can go from calm to chaos in half a second. I get it. I’m not lecturing anybody from behind a desk who’s never had a close call with something four-legged and 200 pounds heavier than they’d like. When my agent Shawn — who spent a decade with Allstate before coming back to our team — talks through how comprehensive coverage handles an animal strike, he’s not reading off a script. He grew up on a dairy farm. Between the two of us and the rest of our crew, this agency has seen just about every version of “an animal ruined my Tuesday” that Vermont has to offer.

My professional advice  

If you drive anywhere near a tree line, a farm field, or basically anywhere in this state that isn’t downtown Burlington at noon, comprehensive coverage isn’t optional peace of mind — it’s just common sense. According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average animal-strike claim runs into the thousands of dollars once modern sensors, cameras, and bumper components get involved, and that number keeps climbing as cars get more expensive to fix. I’d rather sit down with you now, over coffee or on the phone, and make sure your policy actually matches how you live and drive, than have that awkward “I wish we’d talked sooner” conversation after your car is already at the body shop.

So give us a call at the office, or stop by 684 W. Milton Rd. We’ve been doing this since my dad started the agency back in 1965, and this is exactly the kind of conversation we still like having — even if it means explaining, for the thousandth time, why hitting a moose isn’t technically a “collision.” Let’s get your Vermont auto insurance coverage squared away before deer season sneaks up on you again, and while we’re at it, I’ll walk you through the rest of your car insurance policy to make sure nothing else is quietly underinsured either.

The post Does Car Insurance Cover Hitting a Deer or Moose in Vermont? appeared first on Cruz Insurance Agency, Inc.