Honestly, I never saw it coming. Tina’s car will be in the shop at least until Wednesday and mine will be in the shop for an indeterminate amount of time. Why? I was heading on the Interstate toward work, heading at a nice clip. Iowa is blessed with relatively light traffic, allowing us to go the speed limit most of the time. Today this didn’t work out so well for me, as I looked up in the upper right area of my windshield and saw a frantic buck looking down at me.
The next thing I saw was shattered glass heading at me from all directions. It was like time just stopped for a moment. Like in the Matrix or something. Suddenly, time restarted and I managed to get my car to the side of the road, spitting glass from my mouth as I slowed. I lost both passenger side windows and the rear driver side window as well as the windshield. The passenger side mirror is gone, but the rest of the body damage to the car is minor in my unprofessional opinion. We’ll see what the professionals at the body shop have to say, hopefully tomorrow.
Now is the time for me to re-read yesterday’s post and see if it holds true.
Yikes! How did you lose windows on both sides of the car?!
Doesn’t do much for you down in Iowa unless deer have some sort of communication system or primitive “Pony Express” but I reduced the herd locally by one mature, reproducing doe this season already and Saturday will see me back in the woods attempting to remove one or two more.
I’ve almost hit several deer in the last few weeks. It’s the worst time of year for the hazard due to their reproductive cycle/season.
Were you cut? Hurt? Did you keep the buck?
Doug,
Glad to hear you’re okay. They just did a news report here in Rochester this past Friday evening on the number of deer/car accidents in Iowa & Minnesota. Als showed stats on deer/car/fatalities. Iowa is the highest in the country on both counts. Way to add up those numbers!
I’m not sure how both sides lost glass. The tow truck operator said that it was likely due to impact, but the police wondered if the deer was in my back seat for a moment. I honestly don’t think a deer that size could fit into the back window of the car from that angle, and am certain that a whiplash effect would not then throw it back out.
I have had a minor headache since then and my back and legs hurt for about a day. I wonder if that was a combination of the tensing up I did in the stress, as my car was not jarred off the road or anything like that. Thankfully, no other cars were involved in the accident.
Keep the buck? No, I wasn’t given the option, and I didn’t ask. All I wanted to do was go home and collect my thoughts. Right now, I say that we ought to remove most of the limits of deer hunting in the state. Lower the tag price and increase the maximum number of deer that can be shot. There are fewer hunters now than there were a generation ago, and the deer population is showing up more and more.
The body shop estimated the repair costs at 4800 for the glass and body work. I explained that my Ford Focus is not a chick magnet, so the minor dent and scrapes will not be fixed. Those really aren’t too bad. The glass will be replaced and a piece of the door frame will be bent back into shape for about 1400.
Meanwhile, the estimate for Tina’s car is 1200. (Sigh)
Man, Doug, that’s lousy luck–and right before Christmas, too. I had the car thing before Christmas last year myself. We may have it this year, too.
Still, I’m astonished that one deer did that much damage.
Around us, it’s like a killing field with the dead deer laying on the side of the road.
Prediction: Major insurance companies will soon stop insuring vehicle owners against collisions with deer. Trust me, it’s coming.