Anyone ever hit a deer??

[BERIGAN]

Reading through the gory stories of dead deer and totalled cars made me wonder how the insurance companies approach these kinds of accidents?

One thing to consider if you are in Deer country(I think we all are!) is something called R1, R2 insurance renters insurance, I believe. I was told about this by the Ford dealership that rented cars(My 66 Dodge had been totaled by an uninsured motorist-coverage I did have) She said most companies didn't cover hitting an animal, or at least they covered the damage, but you footed the bill for renting a car...this was a few years back I heard this...I of course never asked by State farm agent about this.

[brownie]

I was driving through this southwestern France village last September and was going past the last houses before a long stretch of open road when this deer jumped out from a bush to commit suicide right in front of my car. It did not survive. My car suffered some damage. It took a week in a local garage to have it back in good shape.

This is a regular occurence in the area and seeing deers cross roads is quite common. I am very aware of the fact and pretty careful when I cross through one of the deer-crossing area but this one took me by total surprise. Really coming out of nowhere.

The deer body made a villager happy. Dinner must have been nice. I did not accept an invitation to share!

[Upright Bill]

I got one last night at 70 MPH. After a business trip to Chicago and back I hit a freakin' deer ten miles from home.

The brown thing in front of the box of tissues is exactly what you think it is.

[7/4]

WTF, you're ok?

[Upright Bill]

WTF, you're ok?

I went to the local E.R. for PAIN in my left eye. I had scratched my cornea and cut the inside of my lower eyelid. I also had hundreds of tiny little cuts from the flying glass. All very minor.

[BruceH]

I once hit a rabbit, but it wasn't my fault! It ran right into my car.

[Jim Alfredson]

Damn, Bill, that sucks! I'm glad you're ok, though... thank the powers that be for that one.

[Chuck Nessa]

Damn!

I guess this is your way of squirreling out of the trip to GR on Friday. B)

[connoisseur series500]

Wow Bill!

Your pictures really graphically bring home what you went through.

Damned scary!

[Upright Bill]

Damn!

I guess this is your way of squirreling out of the trip to GR on Friday. B)

Naw, I would never let a little thing like a demonlished car and pain get in the way of Live Jazz! Besides, its a company car, mine is fine.

[Upright Bill]

Wow Bill!

Your pictures really graphically bring home what you went through.

Damned scary!

The wierd part is the moment between when you realize what has just happened and you start to deal with it.

I saw the first deer cross in front of me. I immediately looked for the next one, there is always more than one, at the same moment I hit it. It seemed like a long time before I stopped when actually it was just feet.

When the cop arrived (with at least two entire cans of skoal stick behind his lower lip) he thought all of the blood on me was mine and kept try to talk me into calling for an ambulance.

[Dmitry]

What exactly is that stuff on your passenger seat? Looks like a severed head...

[Brad]

Bill, those are some serious looking pictures. I'm glad you're ok. Deer are a perennial problem in NJ. A few years ago in our town one caused a fatal accident, killing a teacher and one of her students in her car. The deer crossed the road and ran into the car and somehow the deer's head wound up going into the driver who obviously lost control and hit a tree, killing her and the student, both of whom were not wearing belts. The teacher's children were with her but they were wearing belts and both survived. It was an incredibly bad tragedy.

[chris olivarez]

We had a motorcyclist who was recently killed in a collision with a deer. You can't be careful enough especially in SW Colorado.

[vajerzy]

Wow Bill!! I'm glad you weren't seriously injured!!!

It's a scary thing for sure.........they can do so much damage.....

Here's my car:

Edited May 19, 2004 by vajerzy

[Uncle Skid]

Glad you're OK, Bill. Where did this happen? Somewhere on US-31?

[Hardbopjazz]

Ouch!

[tjobbe]

it happened to me 6years ago in the morning on the route to work... everything happened so quickly, hadn't even a chance to react.

Luckily the deer was a young one and was thrown directly off the hood, sliding along the windshield over the roof... only roundabout 600$ damage and a dead deer

Cheers, Tjobbe

[Upright Bill]

What exactly is that stuff on your passenger seat? Looks like a severed head...

It's a strip of hide that used to extend from just behind the deer's left ear to just after its shoulder. When I reached down to remove my seat belt that was on my right thigh.

[Upright Bill]

Glad you're OK, Bill. Where did this happen? Somewhere on US-31?

On US-31 North between Pontaluna and Sternberg.

[Shawn]

I had a deer hit ME once...

I was driving my 1973 Volkswagen Bug, about 1/8 mile from my house...when a whole pack of deer ran out in front of me. I managed to come to a complete stop before hitting any...but then one came running out of the woods at full steam and smashed headfirst into the passenger door! Scared the hell out of me, buckled the door in like it had been hit by a train...of course the deer just got up and walked away. In the process the door was trashed and the front fender was damaged. Luckily for me I was able to buy a used door for my car for $15 (!)...the only problem was that it was a different color...so for a few months I was driving around in a yellow bug that had an orange passenger door with a black pin stripe!!!!! HA!