During my four years of going to high school in the Poconos, I had never hit a deer while driving. People around me were constantly hitting them and having their windshields cracked or their cars totaled, but not me. I thought I was lucky. That luck changed this morning, while driving back from New York City at 4am, when my wife and I hit a deer head-on while driving on Route 80 in New Jersey.
Everything happened in just a few seconds. A quick flash of brown ran across from the center divider of the highway, a hard jerk jolted through our feet like a rough downshift, and then smoke started pouring out of the front hood, so my wife pulled over to the shoulder. We didn’t even realize that we hit a deer because it happened so quickly until I walked out in front and noticed the blood on the crumpled hood.
Thankfully, neither of us is injured. But the car is in pretty bad shape and is now sitting at an automotive shop in Byram, New Jersey right now.
From this experience, I learned that I should stop being stingy and put more money into auto insurance. I was going to downgrade to liability-only insurance after this current period, but I won’t even consider that anymore. Accidents like hitting deer cannot be avoided by our own control (for the most part), so having a good insurance policy is the first defense against these incidents.
This leads me to the second point of the necessity of driving a strong car. If I were in my Mitsubishi Galant instead of my wife’s BMW 5-series, then we probably would have had to limp out of a flipped car in a ditch on the side of the highway. The sturdy body of the BMW bounced the deer away from us instead of letting it tear straight through a thin hood and into the windshield. The next time I buy a car, I plan on buying a used BMW or Cadillac rather than a brand-new flimsy Japanese car that won’t hold up against a scary accident.
Finally, hitting this deer was a necessary reminder to me that our lives are fragile and they can be taken away at any random moment. I needed this wake-up call to appreciate what is really important in my life like my family instead of squandering too much of my precious time and energy over petty matters.
The Conversation {2 comments}
I carry a form of insurance that’s one step up from liability that does cover deer accidents. Check with your insurance agent; laws may be different in your state. I hit a deer a few years ago (in a Nissan Sentra), and I had just dropped collision on the car. Nevertheless, because of the form I did carry, insurance covered the accident.
The car was totaled and the deer died instantly (I was going 75), but I walked away without any injury.
And I’m glad to hear that you did, too.
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