Ok, so saying this sucks is like saying that the sun is a bit warm.

So tonight I was on my way back to my house from my parents place. It is only about a 3 mile drive on an slightly winding country road.

The deer have been pretty thick though here lately so I was driving about 10 miles under the speedlimit. Just as I am about to go over a small stream, 3 deer jump up into the middle of the road and stop dead. I knew I could not stop in time and there was no way not to hit them and stay on the road so I swerved for a field. I figured some damage from the fence was better than hitting a large deer.

Well I was almost right. As soon as my tires hit the shoulder the gravel cause me to lose control a bit. As I passed into the grass my front wheels went airborne and I lost control of the car completely. Instead of continuing into the field the car shot strait forward, missed the concrete wall by about 6 inches. Hit a Fence post head on and then continued about 50 feet forward and about 20 feet down and into the stream.

We had some really bad rain over the weekend and yesterday so the water was higher than normal. The car came to rest at about a 15 degree list towards the passenger side. when I did get out I was up almost to my crotch in water. I managed to get back to the road and call 911. EMS and police showed up. Both were amazed I walked away from it.

I am going to take pictures in the AM but here is what I can tell so far on damage.

There is no more front grill. THe hood is crushed in, front bumper is in about 20 pieces, the windshield is shattered where a fence post almost went through it. The passenger side mirror is torn off and that entire side is scrapped and dented to hell..

Both front wheels are busted up and canted out, and as far as I can tell the drive train is trashed as well. I would bet the axle is almost U shaped. The driver side front and side airbags both deployed and I have part of the Acura badge imprinted on my hand somehow.

As for me, my hand hurts from the airbag, my back is a little sore and my pride is damaged, but I am not injured.

I had to turn the car off myself which is impressive. I could not believe that the engine was still running after all that.

The real kicker. I just had the Oil changed, rotated the tires, and ordered a new set of tires while I was on lunch today.

I am scared to death what this is going to do to m insurance.

 

ouch man

hope everything works out for you

keep us updated and post the pics

 

damn deer. either way it was a bad situation. just be happy you're alright, that situation could've been much worse. It's an awesome car... but still, you can always fix it or get another one. The human body, once its been messed up badly... you can't get another one, and you're stuck with the damage forever.

Either way, good luck with what happens with insurance.

 

Sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you are ok. Good luck in what you do next.

 

glad you're ok. hate to ask.. pics? :P

 

if the motor entered the water... total loss, sounds like ur entire front end is finished, but good to know the tl took the brunt and saved your life... that could have been much worst in so many ways

 

glad your ok, next time just run the mother fuckers over. and post the pix ASAP

 

Glad you're OK, but the next time hit the deer, as it's considered a non-chargeable accident and no increase in insurance, if you can prove you actually hit one. They will look for evidence of hair on the vehicle, or a dead deer carcass to substantiate the report.

 

This should be considered comprehensive damage under your insurance and should not raise your rates at all... (assuming of course that you have a good insurance company and plan)

Glad you are alright... Sorry about the car man...

 

hey man - crazy story, its like a movie in my head as I'm reading this...glad you WALKED away, holy crap

but I'm sorry bro, I'm going to HAVE to do it to you...

 

Yeah Yeah Yeah. I know I need to post the pics. I took them this morning. The damage is worse than I thought it was. No way in hell this is not totaled. I will post the pictures when I get home from work. I don't think I am going to be staying here all day.

 

OUCH is right! Glad you're alright. As others have stated, be glad that you walked away, the car can be fixed or repaired. Or even better, buy a junker to roll for a while, then you can be the first to buy the '09 TL!

I've been extra cautious at night lately because I see deer that didn't make it on the side of the road everyday. I probably would have done the same thing and swerved to avoid them, but it seems like some are saying to plow through them and there would be no hit to insurance. That sounds bizzare to me, but who knows for sure?

 

Sorry to hear about this. Glad your ok. Deer have really become a big problem. Around here you don't have to be on a country road to hit them. There are tons of them on major city streets. There are some neighborhoods that you can drive through at night and probably see 50 of them on one street just hanging out in people's front yards.

 

Just from what you described, it sounds like a goner...pics would be interesting to see, though. Glad you're ok.

 

Crazy sorry for your loss but always just hit the deer cause most of the time the accident ends up worse from swerving. Too bad instinct tells us to swerve.

 

First of, sorry man for the trashed car. Second I'm glad you didn't get hurt badly.

The above quote is true. I keep telling my friends just slam on the brakes and hit the deer head on. Guess what? When it happened to me I swerved! Luckily I didn't hit anything just scraped my underbody a lil bit.

I also tell my friends not to get out of the car for traffic arguments. Guess again? Last Thanksgiving weekend I jumped out of the car and almost got whacked in the head with a bat. Luckily the cops came and arrested the idiot. Now I have to go to court to keep him locked up.

Moral of the story is sometimes common sense dictates not to do something but instinct tells us otherwise.

Be safe folks. Drive with care and have respect for fellow drivers and pedestrians (and deer too)

 

I did the same thing with my A4 in June (hit a tree though, after the deer). It actually knocked the timing belt off, bent the cam drives and wiped ou the entire front end. Body shop estimate alone was $12000, that doesn't include the engine damage (probably another 5 G plus). I ended up getting $2000 more than what I paid for the car 7 months earlier. That's why I am now in the TL. Good luck with your insurance company. Mine never even came to look at the car, the body shop sent pics and the insurance company sent me a check and picked up their 2003 A4.

 

The important thing is that you're OK.

I'm traditionally not a fan of hunting, but the deer population in North America has been exploding in recent years and is completely out of hand in many areas. My cousin is a hunter and former chef who does wonders with venison.

 

Damn dude! Glad you are here to tell the story...it's a testament to the safety value of the TL...maybe there's a TL-S in your future!

 

sorry to hear about what happened bro. it could have been much worse.

next time though, hit the deer. i know i would have. ive read/heard so many stories where hitting the deer is the logical, and sometimes much safer, choice.

 

Glad you're ok. I tagged Bambi with the BMW E36 I was trading for my TL a couple weeks ago. Not totalled, dammit.

Ditto on the no-swerve advice - with ABS and a dry road, the odds are totally in favor of the best outcome in any collision if you stand on the brakes and steer (stay in your lane if there are ANY other cars around). All the old school swerving into the median/ditch techniques just don't fly anymore.

 

I'm glad you are ok.

How about a new TL-S???

 

plus you have more traction and ABS works better in a straight line. if you have the wheels turned, ABS still works, but you dont improve your chances of stopping quicker.

 

Not sure if I would totally agree with that comment:

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...olllision1.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...olllision4.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...olllision5.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...olllision6.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...lllision11.jpg

 

^^^^ thats just gross...... how fast did he hit that deer??? @180mph??? lol

 

yeah Ive seen one with a horse through the car, but that doesnt change the fact that, faced with the event that i see a deer dead ahead and i intend to stop, it would be more logical for me to keep the wheel straight and slam the brake pedal to the floor.

now those pictures you posted (as well as others on the net) are accidents where the vehicle DID NOT STOP and ran through the animal.

what i meant with my earlier post was "hit the deer if you are already are on the brakes", rather than jerk the wheel and avoid hitting the animal. dont swerve and avoid. braking hard from speed and immediately turning hard upsets the rear and is likely to roll the vehicle and crash. there is a reason why there are crash/crumple zones in the front and rear and not on the roof.

if you are at say, 45 mph, and a deer jumps out. you stay your course and slam on the brakes. ABS will slow the car sufficiently enough that the deer (or moose or whatever) wont come flying off the hood and through your windshield. if it has sufficient mass, it will go through the front end and destroy the crumple zone up front.

now if it was a small animal (cat, dog, rabbit) and you were travelling at high speed, id just go right on. swerving to avoid something at speed is a high cause of major road accidents.

 

You mean we got a 5 Star crash rating without roof crumple zones? Roof crumple zones

 

I have had a few near misses with deer, unfortunately the critters jump out of the way right before I nail em.







Just kidding, but if I have passengers in the car and one jumps out and gets caught in the headlights, I'm hitting the fucker, I'll risk body damage over a possible rollover and chance of hitting a tree, post, divider, etc.

 

What a mess! Still, I'd take my chances with the deer. And if you slow down enough that you don't splatter it, you have something nice to take home.

 

Dude, thanks for the disclaimer, I just sat down to a bowl of cereal and almost threw it up upon viewing the pic of the interior of that trailblaze. YUCK.

 

I just vomited my 2 protein cookies, grilled chicken and glass of perrier

 

Lol Cool!

 

hmm... deer? me? deer? me? i chose me!!! sorry bambi, ya getting runned over...

glad you ok man.

 

i wanna see what the person looked like that was driving that SUV

 

I think if you had to choose again, you'd hit the deers =]

 

wow, that's fkin disgusting.......

 

Bambi is soup now

 

Well if I were you I would have slammed the brakes you would be suprised how quickly the TL stops. I hit the brakes going 40mph an hour down a very aggressive decline I stopped with in a few feet, the brakes felt awful after doing that but I was able to avoid the deer, and that's all that matters. Brakes have 28,000mi of use and they still have decent stopping power and this is an A/T.

 

LMAO! I couldn't stop laughin from lookin at those pics.

hahahahahahahahahahah!

The driver def got the holy hell shocker of his/her life. Thank god the airbag didnt go off they would have gotten a face full of deer.

kick out the windshield, roll all the windows down and take that shit through a heavy cycle of a car wash lol. It will buff right out.

 

i remember seeing those pics before. Almost as bad as the girl in the porsche hitting the concrete toll booth.

I would still stay the course though

a) staying on the road and hitting the breaks keeps you in control. If you know there might be traffic behind you, swerving to the road side and hitting the brake is the better option. Swerving off the road takes you out of control and anything can happen.

b) Hitting deer is an act of nature for which the insurance companies cant really hit you for. Running off to the side of the road and into a stream can be anything. you drunk, you speeding and losing control, you falling asleep at the wheel, etc.