It was 6:10 in the morning on Saturday, November 8, and I was on US-36 headed east toward the terminal for my on-call Saturday. Still dark, coffee in the cup holder, nobody else on the road. A doe came up out of the ditch on the right side and was in front of the truck before my foot got from the gas to the brake.
I didn't swerve. I'd like to say that was skill, but mostly it's something my dad drilled into me years ago: brake hard, hold the wheel straight, don't go into the ditch or the other lane for a deer. The truck hit her at something like 45 after braking. The noise was a loud, flat bang and then the sound of plastic dragging. I pulled onto the shoulder with my flashers on and sat there for a minute with my hands on the wheel.
I was fine. The deer was not, and she was off the road in the ditch. I checked the truck with my phone flashlight. The front bumper was pushed in on the passenger side, the grille was cracked through, and the passenger headlight was in pieces. Nothing was leaking. The temperature gauge stayed normal. I got lucky that the radiator didn't get punctured.
Here's what I did, in order, because I'd read about this exact thing in October during deer season and thought, that'll never be me:
- Got the truck fully off the road with flashers on, and stayed in it until I was sure traffic was clear.
- Took photos of the damage, the road, the mile marker and the deer from a distance.
- Didn't touch the animal. An injured deer can kick hard.
- Called work to say I'd be late, then called the claims number on our new insurance card.
- Drove home slowly with one headlight once it got light, instead of going on to work.
The timing was something. We had switched insurers on November 1, one week earlier, after our agent shopped our policy around. I had the new card in my wallet for exactly seven days before I needed it. Tina said, "Well, at least you didn't have to look up the number." She had it pinned on the fridge, as it turns out.
The claim
Hitting an animal falls under comprehensive coverage, not collision. That matters for two reasons. Our deductible on comprehensive is $500, and our agent told us that comprehensive claims for animal hits generally aren't treated as at-fault accidents, so they usually don't push the premium up the way a collision claim would. I'm only repeating what our agent told us. Every insurer has its own rules, so ask yours.
The claim took about fifteen minutes on the phone. They asked where, when, how fast, whether anybody was hurt, and whether I'd reported it to police. On a rural highway with no injuries and no other vehicle, they said it wasn't required for them, but they wanted the photos. An adjuster looked at the truck on Tuesday at the body shop I picked.
The estimate
The written estimate came to $3,860. Here's roughly what's in it:
Parts are about $2,150 of it: a new front bumper cover and reinforcement, brackets, the grille, the passenger headlight assembly and a couple of clips and sensors. The headlight alone is a few hundred dollars. Body and refinish labor is about $1,420, and paint and materials are about $290. The adjuster approved it as written. We pay the $500 deductible to the body shop when we pick the truck up, and the insurer pays the shop the other $3,360.
For a 2014 truck with about 140,500 miles on it, $3,860 is a big number. It's not close to totaling it, though, which was my first worry on the shoulder that morning.
The part I didn't plan for
The body shop says some of the parts are backordered. They're guessing at least a few weeks. We don't carry rental coverage, so I'm commuting in my dad's 1998 Ranger until then. Dad drove it down from Savannah on Sunday, handed me the keys and said, "Clutch is a little high. Don't ride it." He sat in his lawn chair in our driveway and watched me back it out, which was a great comfort to both of us.
I'll post again when the truck comes home. For now, the notebook says November 8, 6:10 a.m., US-36, deer, $3,860 estimate, $500 out of our pocket. And I'm driving a little slower at dawn, which is what I should have been doing all along. October through December is when the deer are moving around here, and that ditch is going to be there every morning.