Temporary repair with duct tape.

2:20 p.m. Updated to add details about insurance coverage.

I wrote recently about an apparent decline in the number of deer-car collisions, possibly because the slow economy had reduced the volume of cars on the road. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my family did its part to boost those numbers.

We hit a deer. Or more accurately, a deer hit us as we drove through rural Arkansas on our way to visit family and friends in Georgia. Once you’ve experienced a large, horned animal smashing through the window of your car, the statistics take on new significance (as does the meaning of the word “deductible”).

The incident began with a simple error. We’d left later than expected, so when we drove through Little Rock, it was getting dark. We weren’t using a GPS and managed somehow to get off the main highway. We drove about 20 minutes until we realized our mistake and turned onto a wooded secondary road that would get us back on course toward Memphis.

As we headed down the dark, two-lane highway, I urged my husband, who was driving our minivan, to use the high beams. “There might be deer.” (Cue ominous music.)

While our children watched a video in the back seat, I fiddled with my smartphone, trying to find a place to eat. So I was completely unprepared when the van lurched violently to the left. A jarring whomp from behind came next, accompanied by the tinkling of shattering glass, followed by the whistling of wind and, after a second of shocked silence, the screams of my children.

My husband had spotted a large buck running toward the van from the side of the road and had swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid it (That’s usually what gets drivers in trouble, because they tend to end up hitting other cars. Luckily, no vehicles were driving from the other direction.) But the deer kept coming and blundered into the side of our van.

The best we can tell, his antlers broke the window (the far rear passenger-side panel, just behind where my 8-year-old was sitting) and his hooves made a big dent in the side of the van. None of us was hurt. (I don’t know for sure what happened to the deer. It was dark, and we couldn’t see anything on the road. But I assume he died.)

After climbing into the back seat to calm my daughters and to assure them that there wasn’t a deer carcass lying in the cargo area, we drove to the next town, where a helpful auto shop owner kept his lights on late to help us duct tape the window and vacuum up the broken glass before we limped to a hotel.

Our insurance representative helpfully found us a glass company that repaired our window once we arrived in Atlanta. (The repairman, by the way, shared his own deer tale. A friend was attacked by a buck in north Georgia while riding his motorcycle, suffering a sliced leg and a $5,000 repair bill to his bike.) The cost of the new window is mostly out of our pocket because of a $500 deductible. I expect that the body work, to fix the dent, will be covered by our insurance policy.

One step we didn’t take, and should have, was to call the local police to report the deer strike. Sometimes, wounded deer can stumble back onto the road, causing a hazard to other drivers, so alerting authorities is a good idea. In the confusion after our collision, we didn’t think to do that.

We’ve now adopted a “no driving at night” policy, at least, during deer mating season, which apparently occurs in the fall and leads to a spike in deer-auto accidents in October and November. And we’re rethinking that deductible.

Loretta Worters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group, says damage caused by an accident with deer or other animals is covered under the optional, comprehensive portion of your auto policy—not the collision portion, as people sometimes think.

Comprehensive insurance is usually sold with a deductible of $100 to $300, but higher amounts are available, as a way of lowering your premium (hence, our $500 deductible).

Some insurers offer what’s called “full glass” coverage, which lets you pay an extra premium (around $50 to $75 a year) so you can have window damage repaired with no deductible.  (That sounded like a good idea, but I checked and my carrier doesn’t offer this).

Have you ever hit a deer? What sort of damage did it cause, and how much did it cost you in repairs?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=91786631e647800df78c2eeb1d39eab0