Cool Hand’s car meets deer both lose badly..

[rayinpenn]

1) DS is fine.
2) Did you know?

Pennsylvania had the second highest rate of car accidents involving deer in the country last year. Pennsylvanians have a one in 70 chance of being involved in a deer-related accident. There were 141,000 Pennsylvania deer-crash insurance claims reported from July 1, 2017, through June 2018

11:30 PM the phone wakes us up it is Cool Hand.. he is about a mile away and he tells the sleepy Mrs. “I hit a deer”. He was on the way to gym. Yes Cool Hand sleeps late and keeps odd hours (5 As and a C+ this semester lets keep things in prospective.). We dress, are out the door and find him in ten minutes. The car is still in the middle of the road, flashers on. I force the drivers door open and pull it to the side of the road. He must have hit pretty hard the front fender has shifted, the headlight is pointing the wrong way and there is fluid leaking. The deer is nearby taking its final rest. The police arrive and tell us if you can drive it home no police report is needed -just report it to your insurer. I tell my son “you know nothing good happens after midnight”. This morning I’ll will apologize.. that 14 year old, 140,000 mile Honda CRV was my reliable buddy for 8 years. Then it’s college life- 4 years for the daughter and 2 years for the Cool Hand. I know silly -an inanimate object. We had hoped it would get him through his last 2 years in undergraduate school. In truth I was always expecting some kind of a catastrophic final breakdown call. The Mrs said that car owes us nothing...

The old car is sitting in the street I’m sure it is ‘totaled’. Book Value will be minimal - $500 deductible. I’m guessing anything running is worth 3 grand so maybe ill see $2,000. I’m not sure how to get rid of it? Maybe the insurance company will take care of that?

Now we need to find him something.. My first 5 months of retirement have been interesting: New Boiler, termites, another bulge ($7,000) in the stucco..and now a car -thats life I guess -no complaints.

What do you think? Craigs list, EBay, Toyota or Honda Dealership. I dont want anything too new- it will be a parking lot queen much of the time. i do want reliability.

Your ideas will be appreciated...

 

[rayinpenn]

The old gal looks deceptively good eh?

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Ray,

Glad that your son is unscathed; sad for the deer. When I lived in Maine (for 10 years) I used to go out looking for Moose, but somehow never saw one. Definitely did not want to meet one on the highway at night. It's weight and high center of gravity too often means death to all involved.

I had a (new) Subaru Forester (AWD) for 10 years and put 253,000 miles on it, before turning it over to some friends as their "city car". It was the most reliable and safest car I ever owned. I made sure that I never skimped on the tire quality. Lots of Mainers own them for their performance on snow, ice, and heavy rain.

-BB

 

[rayinpenn]

A car with a book value of $3,000 doesnt need much damage to be totaled. Note the fluid and fender door alignment?

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Just curious why you would NOT want a police report? Given the hour, I would want the report confirming a deer was hit to show 100% to the insurance company that this was not alcohol related.

ETA - Glad he is safe.

 

[rayinpenn]

I guess its so common that it is a cost do insuring in Penn.. we have pictures of the deer. PS with a young driver we don’t want an accident on his record do we? Things could get dicey $$$ then.

 

[Bigdawg]

Are you kidding me? That looks fine. I would have that fixed and keep driving it. Heck, I'm thinking about making you an offer.

 

[Mdlerth]

Better to bend steel than break bones

You are not alone.

We have five children. All of them wrecked cars. I was one of five; all of us wrecked cars, too. Some more than once.

Too bad for the deer, but there's a reason deer don't win Nobel Prizes: they don't have opposable thumbs with which to hold the prize money! Ha ha!

No, seriously, deer are flighty and unpredictable. You can be as alert as you want, but if the deer decides to bolt across the road you are in the hands of Fate. Mercifully, Cool Hand is okay and your only challenge now is to find a replacement ride.

Have you considered Hyundai? I know some folks who, over the past dozen years, have had excellent experience with both their sedans and small SUVs. They (the cars, not the folks) inexpensive and demonstrate good reliability, handling & mileage.

Again, glad your son is fine. Also, I've used the same line, "Nothing good happens after midnight". I'd heard it said by (NFL coach) Tony Dungy and it sounded like great fatherly advice.

 

[fh2000]

Are you kidding me? That looks fine. I would have that fixed and keep driving it. Heck, I'm thinking about making you an offer.

Looks fine to me too. If it is still drive-able, have a shop give you a quote to fix it, or drive to CarMax and sell it to them.

 

[Jerry1]

Looks fine to me too. If it is still drive-able, have a shop give you a quote to fix it, or drive to CarMax and sell it to them.

I agree. I would definitely get a quote. Not sure why you don’t want to claim that on insurance. If you’re not sure, call your insurance company and ask if there is a penalty in a deer hit. Maybe it’s a no fault thing and you just have to pay deductible. If you need a police report, you can still get one. They have a record of coming out.

If you just don’t want to bother, I would Craigslist the car. Someone who works on cars might pick that up and fix it well enough to drive it.

What fluid is leaking? Washer fluid

 

[gromit]

If you go through your Insurance company, expect the value of repairs to total the car. The insurance company then owns it and will take it. Many decades ago I bought back a totaled car for 10% or 15% of the book value. When totaled, the title is marked as a salvage title, and to register it again for driving requires an inspection and sign off by a police officer that the car had been repaired enough to be legally operable.

 

[Bigdawg]

What fluid is leaking? Washer fluid

That was my guess.

 

[kcowan]

I would get it fixed. It is not about finances. It is about repairing a reliable daily driver. Just avoid insurance repair shops. They have unnecessarily high costs. Maybe advertise on craigslist for a low cost repair guy. Force Cool Hand to drive it for a few more years.

 

[Bestwifeever]

If the police responded there must be some kind of bare minimum police report showing that they came to the scene and advised you to go home with the car, case closed (so they saw no evidence of driver impairment), so that must be available if you need it. And sounds like you will report it to insurance if asking whether insurance will take the wrecked car away for you.

It will be interesting to see if your insurance will go up, but hopefully not--DH backed into a very expensive car a few years ago and our insurance did not increase.

?...

We have five children. All of them wrecked cars. I was one of five; all of us wrecked cars, too. Some more than once.

....

When our son was 5, someone told us each of his 4 sons wrecked a car as a teenager, and that boys do that. We scoffed. 11 years later, boom, our son wrecked a car a few months after getting his license. Our DD's car was totaled while it was parked--she still has a wreck due her at 40.

 

[MRG]

Glad CH is ok.

 

[Maenad]

Glad your son is OK. I hit a deer at 60 mph in Montana at dusk during a road trip - it SUCKED. Especially having to continue to drive home to MN.

Make sure he gets behind the wheel quickly - "getting back on the horse after you've been thrown" is important. Otherwise it can impair his ability to drive for a while; I know I was really shaky the next day, but needed to get home, so...

 

[pacergal]

Ray--
Glad your son is OK. Both of our kids totaled our old cars too!
If car is not repairable, personally, I would look for a used Toyota or Honda.
Our first couple years of retirement have seen the unexpected expenses crop up, also. that's what the contingency plan is for. Luckily, things have quieted down and we are building cash reserves back up.......

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Glad your son is OK. I hit a deer at 60 mph in Montana at dusk during a road trip - it SUCKED. Especially having to continue to drive home to MN.

Make sure he gets behind the wheel quickly - "getting back on the horse after you've been thrown" is important. Otherwise it can impair his ability to drive for a while; I know I was really shaky the next day, but needed to get home, so...

Plus 1.

Many years ago I was a young analyst with a small mgmt consulting company and had a car accident with the president of the company on board, just a few blocks from the rental agency (in downtown Philadelphia). We were just starting a trip to northern New Jersey, for a major proposal presentation to the old AT&T Long Lines corp. offices and I was driving.

I hit a parked car (long story) and really banged up the bumper and hood of the car. I was shaken (especially because the accident was sudden, violent, and caused the boss to spill his entire giant cup of Sprite soda on his lap!) To his credit, and my enduring appreciation, he asked me if I was okay. I was. Then he said, "you need to keep driving now. Trust me". I was skeptical, but he was right. After a few dozen miles on the highway I was confident again and the boss's crotch dried completely before we arrived in Bedminster.

By the way, I made the proposal and we won the business. As a result you can thank me for the first ever national charge ($.50) for a directory assistance call, back in the 80s.

-BB

 

[Teacher Terry]

Glad your son is fine. When my son totaled our car we bought it back from the insurance and he drove it another 2 years.

 

[BrianB]

Ten years ago when our daughter was getting her license we met with our insurance agent. She said that you should not swerve to avoid a deer or other animal. If you hit an animal it is comes under your Comprehensive coverage (small or zero deductible, no "dings" to your driving record). If you swerve and go into a ditch or a hit light pole it is a collision (higher deductible, may increase your rates or incur points).

I had not known this before, but I still think about it when I'm driving on rural roads in the evening or night.

 

[Scrapr]

Lil Scrapr has totaled 3 cars. He is 23 now and using the bus. One of the totals we did not report to insurance. We told the repair shop we were cash pay and wanted the bare minimum to be safe & road worthy. They worked with us to make that happen.

My 2 year old Volvo got hit similar to Cool Hand's hit. $9k to repair.

 

[f35phixer]

get it fixer MINIMALLY !!!! i.e make it so door opens/closes securely, don't worry about the dent, Cool doesn''t need a pretty car.

 

[OldShooter]

If it drives safely and the door is or can be made to latch properly, just have DS drive it as is. Make needed adjustments with a crowbar and a big hammer or use a good bottle of something to lure a mechanically oriented friend to help with the adjustments.

Make sure the headlight does not shine into oncoming drivers' eyes, though.

 

[jollystomper]

Sorry to hear, but your son being okay is the main thing. Cars can be replaced.

One of our sons hit a deer under, for insurance purposes, the "best" possible circumstances. He was 22 and had just bought the car from one of his brothers. He is driving down a two way country road and sees a police car off the road on his right, just before a corn field. He makes sure he is going under the speed limit (this kid is not the speed demon of the family), and just as he passes the car a deer darts out from behind it and directly in front of him. traffic is coming the other way... so son plows straight into the deer right in front of the police car.

The officer runs over and, after making sure our son is okay, tells him "don't worry. You were not speeding. You did everything right. This could not have been avoided. I saw it all and will put all that in the report".

$3K to repair on a car that was worth over $12K at the time. Our son had no issues with insurance, and his rates did not go up.

 

[Janet H]

I'm glad your son is OK. Now... go out to the curb and thank your old heap for doing it's job and protecting your kid. Find another one with equally thick skin. Cars are replaceable - kids not so much.