My truck is nearly 5 years old now, and I have always taken great care of its appearance, been very careful to keep it looking good.
Up to now, a good detail job done on it and you'd never think it was 5 years old and has 280,000 miles on it.
Early on it got damaged at the dealer quick lane oil change, and had extensive body work, brought it back to like new, since then not even a door ding.
Well, that changed on this past Saturday night, got into a crash.
Travelling along US31, a ways south of South Bend Indiana, I was in the left lane passing slower traffic...
Suddenly, out of the median brush, a deer came flying out and crashed into my truck!
She hit my truck on the left front with her right shoulder, and hit it HARD.
Now, my pretty truck is bent and damaged...

Actually, looking at it now, I was pretty lucky it wasn't much worse.
Bent the end of the bumper, knocked the foglight out, broke the headlight lens.
Was able to keep going, headlight still works, although out of focus and aim.
Very little, if any, damage to the fender or anything else.
Booger is my insurance deductible is a grand, so I may just try and find a used bumper and headlight housing and try and fix it myself.
However it gets fixed, it is going to wipe out any profit from my trip though.

 

Bummer. It's a shame you can't go after the deer's insurance carrier...

 

Was just saying this very thing to my sister last night!

 

Isn't hitting a deer covered under comprehensive coverage, and not collision?
I guess that fixing it yourself has the upside of the hit not showing up on a Carfax report.
However you look at it, the situation sucks. Sorry that you have to deal with it.

 

Ugh, that stinks; especially when you use your truck to make your living.

Bob

 

It is good you held you lane like you did.... didn't swerve into the traffic you were passing. No injuries. Still driveable. Still sucks bad, but not too bad. Glad you're okay.

 

Sorry to hear but lucky there is no damage to the fender or hood.

Dave

 

Yes , it would be under Comprehensive coverage . I have 3 deer hits with our Jeep a few years ago . Paid my $250 Comprehensive deductible and it was as good as new .

 

Sorry, that su**s, been there, done that, tis one of the reasons I put Ranch Hands on 2 of my trucks, they have paid for themselves by not having to rplc bumper, headlights, fenders, turn signals etc... except for when they run into the SIDE of your truck, as happened to my neighbor a few days after he was asking about my Ranch Hand. I was behind him heading down the hill when a fat doe runs down and straight into the rear pass. side door of his truck! Dented the living crap out of it, shook it off and ran away, we never did get her insurance info... we did laugh that the bumper would not have helped out in that situation.

Glad your collision wasn't worse! Had a large buck take out the whole grill of a rental F150 years ago.

 

Did you know that deer cannot see very well?

I had no eye deer...........

 

Hmm...Hadn't thought of that, maybe call my insurance guy and see what he says.
CARFAX won't matter any with the miles I have it isn't worth much anyway.
And, I maintain that the deer HIT ME!!!

 

Had the collision happened half a second later she would have hit the side of my truck, I'd be extra pissed then!
I've driven probably two million miles professionally, and this is my first deer hit.

 

Wow!! That is very fortunate and awesome! I've lost count of the deer/truck encounters I've had... course I have lived in the mtns for 26yrs so there's that.

 

I've seen tons over the years, had some close calls, but this was the first actual collision.

 

I had a big buck ram my '05 in the drivers door. It was night and I was doing about 60; just barely saw him put his head down and ram me. The buck lost, but not before he did about $5k damage. The body shop could not believe he bent the door side protection beam. New bumper & lights and you'll be good as new. I have Ranch Hand guards on my trucks; they are great; pay for themselves; if you can take the deer head on.