Another Deer Bites The Dust - We Think

We’re in coastal NC for a bicycle event. Driving home last night from dinner with my half-brother, a deer came out of nowhere. Felt the windshield impact simultaneous with seeing it. Fair amount of damage, but we were both fine. Deer was seen walking into the woods. We’re staying with friends at a rental in Bath, and managed to drive there. Now we’re figuring how to get the car to a body shop in Greenville and how to get back home to E TN - we think we found a rental and a tow to the shop - but we’ll see. Kind of a pain, but this too shall pass.

I’ll post photos of the damage when I’m able - probably in a day or two. (I think I figured out how to do it from my phone below). Appears to be damage to the left headlight housing, left fender, left mirror (knocked off) and the outer panel of the charge port, windshield and a very small dent on the driver’s door. Hood may actually be unscathed. Will let you all know more as I know more.

Oh, and we had a dashcam running. I have to wait until we get home to see what we got. If it’s anything worthwhile, I post it on YouTube and provide a link.

 

50-ish?

 

Update: Clarity is at a body shop in Greenville, NC. We got upgraded from a Kia Soul to a Sorrento and just got home to E TN after a long and tiring day. All the way worried that another deer might try to “bookend” our trip! I’ll let you know the estimate when we get it. Progressive says our collision deductible is $450 and windshield $50. It would have been nice to have lower deductibles, but with what we saved on premiums I think we’re still way ahead overall.

 

I actually picked the charge port cover cover up off the road and threw it in the trunk. I actually asked the lady at the body shop to save it for me if they install a new one.

For those unfamiliar…

 

Just got the estimate. About $7,600. The most expensive single item was the headlight/running light unit at about $1,449. Looks like I’m only on the hook for a $450 deductible. The time to do the work is almost totally dependent on parts availability. We’ll see. I can attach or email the estimate if anyone’s curious.

And I did catch the event on the dashcam. I have to update iMovie to edit it and upload it to YouTube and I’ll post a link when I’m done. The video makes it look like a really small deer, but the wide angle may be influencing that. And it’s hard to see how a small deer could have impacted the windshield where it did. Makes me realize I really didn’t see the deer at all - just a blur and the windshield shattering. And my guess of my speed as “50-ish” was correct.

 

Nope. $843.16 but labeled as “Aftermarket New”.

 

You may recall that I had a cracked windshield this summer, replaced by SafeLite. I still don't know if it was OEM, but it was fine, although maybe not 100% optically perfect. It was almost unnoticeable, but there was a center portion that was a very tiny bit "wavy". Only apparent if you moved your head while looking through that portion. Hopefully the new one will be perfect, wherever its sourced from.

 

And here's the dashcam video:

 

Spoke with the body shop Friday. They said the windshield was in and they were finishing up the bodywork. They said they needed the local Honda dealer to calibrate the windshield, so our pickup date was dependent on that.

Fingers crossed. If it comes in under 2 months, it will be far faster than we anticipated.