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Okay, long story short, I was driving to work Friday night around 10:45pm and I ran into a deer.  Luckily I wasn't hurt, unluckily, I also wasn't killed, cause that would at least spare me the misery my life has become of late.  I was unable to start the car, much less drive it, so after a few choice swear words, I got and began walking along the highway.

It was a dark, cold night with a steady drizzle of rain, not too pleasant.  I stuck my thumb out at the passing cars, but none stopped to give me a ride.  I can't say I blamed them; it was dark, late at night, some guy wondering around the highway, I probably wouldn't have stopped either.  Eventually a nice highway patrol officer picked me up (turns out someone had called the police about someone roaming the interstate.)  We went back to my car, he filled out the traffic report while I gather some stuff from my vehicle (although, not exactly in my right frame of mind, I forgot to grab my insurance statement, much less a library book that needed to returned soon.)

He called a tow truck for me and then dropped me off at work.  The next morning, I tried calling my parents, but only got their answering machine.  I called Jim (my stepdad)'s cell phone and found out they were on their way to visit my step grandfather.  I told them the situation and told them not to worry about me, at least for tonight.

I took a cab ride home, which cost me $24.00.  It would have cost me $23, but she charged me an extra because I had to have her stop at the local convenience store so I could use the ATM to get some cash.  And, as if the universe wanted to fulfill some kind of weird stereotype, I somehow got a cab driver for whom English was not their first language, weird, huh?  And I don't even live in a major city where something like this happens regularly.

But that's all just the lead up to the cherry on this crap sundae.  I put a call to my insurance, spoke for a bit to a messenger (they were closed on Saturday, so I had to talk to a messenger service).  Then, hours later, I got a call from an agent at my house.  Turns out, I do NOT have coverage for being hit by a deer.  No, I only have Personal injury, Un/Under Insured Motorist, and Liability (for if I hit someone.)

So... I dunno.  I'm currently out of a car.  No clue if it can be fixed or not, and currently have only $46 in my checking account, I'm BARELY living paycheck to paycheck as is, and I still need to pay a towing fee (God knows how much that will be, as it was "after hours" and "out of town".)

Oh, and to top it off, I still have an insurance payment due at the end of this month.

I tell ya, life just loves to knock you down and then kick you a few times, huh?

I don't know... I guess it's my fault, I never really looked into my insurance policy or what it would or wouldn't cover.  Actually, I never even picked my insurance company, my stepdad picked it, and they signed me up when I started driving and I just stuck with the policy assuming it was the best and cheapest.  I've talked to some other people with car insurance and one guy said that his insurance agent calls them every three years to discuss their policy and talk about what is and isn't covered.  Another said they found it odd the agent had never mentioned I wouldn't be covered under such a circumstance and try to convince me to buy more insurance.  If someone had TOLD me I wasn't covered for deer hits, I would have considering purchasing more coverage, because that's NOT an uncommon occurrence for this area, but... (shrugs)

In fact, speaking of such, I remember just the past couple of weeks seeing TWO dead deer along the highway.  Guess I should have taken that as a warning, but I guess unless you've ever hit a deer it's one of those things that you hear about but figure happens to other people, you know like being mugged or having a regular sex life.

That's messed up, dude. Sorry to hear about all this. Hang in there.

Bummer dude, that sucks. How bad is the car, maybe it's something that can be easily fixed.

Did the deer survive? For F-ing up your car, you should at LEAST get a few meals out of the thing.

As for being warned by seeing dead deer along the road: Don't beat yourself up over that, I see them quite often, and the only alternative is to drive 10 miles an hour everywhere, and THEN one of the damn things runs into the SIDE of your car anyways. There's not much of a way to truly predict what they'll do or when and where it will happen. I've been driving down the roar in Ohio and saw 3 of them grazing 40-50 feet off the road, saw them take off like they were fired out of a cannon right across the road in front of me, only to stop an start lazily grazing on the OTHER side of the road. Their brains are about the size of a walnut.

That sucks.  I've seen the aftermath of a deer being hit in DC, so it could happen just about anywhere except midtown Manhattan (but there you've got to worry about a whole bunch of other things).

I have invested in a AAA membership, and while most years I don't need it at all, I have on a couple of times, at which point the $35 membership is a lot cheaper than the towing fee.

That truly sucks, BTM.  Sometimes life does like to hit you when you're down.

I'd tell you to "buck up", but you're probably not in the mood for bad puns...

Actually that was kind of funny.  Hehe!

Believe it or not, it was a Buck I hit, a young one though, the type hunters wouldn't even bother with.

At least you're not the deer.


And, hey, it could've been worse. You could've hit a big, bad-ass effin' moose. Those things'll mess you up.

I've done that, it sucks, but really, more people die from hitting deer due to them coming inside the car more often. Had I hit a deer instead of a moose, the deer would likely ended up in my lap. The moose couldn't fit between the roofline and the steering wheel where a deer could have.

Okay, I got some good news!

First up, the damage didn't seem as bad as we thought.  We need a new battery, the fender is bent back, the radiator needs to be fixed, the hood's messed, but we think with some repairs it can be drivable.  In addition, my stepbrother, who's a mechanic, just happens to have a car that is VERY similar to mine on his yard (he's a mechanic, so he's got like seven cars lying around his property.)  

My car, if you're wondering, is a '89 Lincoln Towncar, and my brother has a '89 Lincoln something or other (don't remember what type it was, but I don't think it's a Towncar.)  Anyway, he should be able to get all the parts we need for my car from that one.  It's funny, he got the car for free from a friend of his (it doesn't run) but he was thinking of fixing it up and making it into a demo car.  (If you know anything about those old Lincolns, they can take quiet a bit of punishment on their bumpers.)

In fact, if my bumper had been about six inches or so higher, I probably could have hit the deer and kept right on going!  It's weird looking, actually, the fender is pulled back, the bumper and the area above it is fine, so it almost looks like I've got a weird looking shelf in the front of my car.

Only downsides to this is I'm currently out a car and have to depends for rides, and I'm going to owe my parents even more money after this is done (and I haven't even been able to repay them entirely for the loan for the last bit of repairs my car needed.)

I apologize for the overly negative tone of my previous post, it's just that, you know, life hasn't been going too well for me, and then this happens, and it's hard not to just sink into despair, especially when it seems like no one cares about what I'm going through.  

Anyway, hopefully it'll get fixed okay and we won't have to do too much extra for it.

Aw, Dude I feel for ya.
We got lots of dead bambi's around Columbus Ohio.
Yesterday, I saw two guys getting out of a pickup on I-270 by the grove City exit. They were walking to a hairy snow pile with half an 8-point rack sticking up.
It wasen't there today!

Deer are skittish animals. And yeah, the more down turned your hood, the more likely they can come right into your face.
Not hit one yet...God, don't let it ever happen!  :bluesad:

You aren't kidding. A few years ago when visiting family in the Akron/Canton area I drove to Bristol TN, which led me through that part of the state (kinda). All along the highway there were deer and all other kinds of critters splattered on the road. A friend of mine and my son were keeping track of them. I bet between the deer and other sizable animals we saw a dozen per mile of highway in some parts.

I've only hit one deer with a car since I've been driving 17 years so far.

It was with my first car and thankfully I was able to slow down enough to where it just buckled my hood a bit.  The deer went flying a bit into a ditch but promptly got up and then ran off into the woods. I hope that it was okay. I was probably going about 30 when I struck it.

There have been a big increase in deer getting hit on highways here in VA.  Particularly in southside and SW VA.  I saw a deer get obliterated by a tractor trailer the other day coming the opposite direction.

(http://www.minicassettetees.com/images/EvilDeer.jpg) 

I saw the aftermath of a moose getting hit by a train. It spread that sucker across about a thousand square feet. I heard that when moose are in rut, they'll sometime take the sound of a horn as a threat and charge it, not a very smart animal. Like a friend of mine says, "They're like a racehorse with down syndrome"

Well, I got my car back.  Like I said earlier, my stepbro happened to have a car that was almost the same type (one year off), and him and my stepdad were able to swap out most of the needed parts. 

I now have a "two-tone" car, the front part and the hood are black, while the rest (not counting the top) is silver (the top was black before all this.)  There's a lot of rust-looking red on the front of the hood, but I don't really care too much about the looks, I want something that'll take me from one place to another. 

So, it's good to be driving again, although I have to admit, that first night driving back to work was NERVE-WRACKING.  I mean, once again, it's late at night, and I kept glancing over to my side expecting a deer to leap out in front of me at ANY minute.  I'd get next to large truck and think, "Okay, they'll protect me..." Then I'd pass them, and I'd be like, "Ahh, damn, I'm vulnerable again!"

Anyway, I've now driven to work a total of three times, and it's gotten better the last two.  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be back to what (to me) passes for normal.  :)

Took a while for me also. A year and a half later, I only get moderately nervous when going through the area, and only when going the same direction I was, and at night like it was. When I see one near the road, I do tend to react more and more quickly than I did before my wreck.

Happy to hear everything worked out in the end, BTM.