Stupid freaking deer . . .

[TomQuick]

So I'm on my way home tonight after working for 15 hours, and a deer runs out in front of an SUV on the other side of the road. The SUV hits the deer, and spins it around right into the front of my Accord. I didn't even have time to hit the brake pedal before I hit the deer.

The deer then goes under my car, I stall out, and skid to a stop in the middle of the road with the deer wedged under my car. Amazingly, the SUV just keeps going as if nothing happened. So I get the car started back up, drive it off the deer, and get over onto the shoulder.

There is plenty to be thankful for. I didn't get hurt, the air bags didn't deploy, and the car isn't totaled. After some roadside work on the remains of the lip, splash shield, and bumper, I was able to drive the car home.

There is plenty of carnage though. The bumper cover is a write off. The lip is gone, as is the splash shield. The drivers side fender liner was destroyed, along with the drivers side headlight. Oddly enough, the headlights were on when I hit the deer (it was dark), and the headlight lens is broken in quite a few pieces, yet both bulbs are still working, go figure. The corner light on the drivers side is a mess, and the bumper light is gone as well.

Sadly, the radiator core support took a good bit of damage. The radiator isn't leaking, but the bottom of the core support was pushed up, and back a good bit, stopping just short of the cross member where the radius rod is anchored. In addition, it pulled the vertical center panel of the front core support / bulkhead, which pulled the top of the core support / bulkhead down a bit. It isn't terrible, but it's a little harder to close the hood than it should be.

All in all, I think it's fixable. The core support I can leave for the time being, so I'll need to get a bumper cover, headlight, corner light, bumper light, splash shield, and fender liner, and that should get me back on the road. Luckily, there are no fluid leaks, and the suspension seems to have been spared. The car still drives, and steers fine. I'll post up some pictures later in the weekend, and update as I start gathering the parts to put it back together.

[benjiaccord]

When will animals learn that the road belongs to the cars?

[bcjammerx]

I feel your pain...I've got a dinged up fender and new headlights/turn signal thanks to my last encounter with a deer...Glad you're okay and your radiator isn't busted! LUCKY!


btw...will you be serving deer jerky/steaks soon?

[vietkid_2006]

When will animals learn that the road belongs to the cars?

We took over their land, they don't really know any better.

but yeah that really sucks I almost had an encounter with two deer's coming home from work one night I was coming downhill and two bambi's jumped out into the road and good thing I saw them quite aways with my HID's and slowed down right away, when I got to them they just stood and stared at me and ran off..

and the SUV probably didn't even feel it hit since their so big.

[accord=inspire?]

pictures

[cvc7chris]

i hate deers. i hit one last december with my integra doing 60...tore the headlights, bumper, fender all bent to hell, bumper lights and wiring gone, fender lining and door took some damage. amazingly nothing to my radiator...

[GenDBlade]

I would just like to point out that the word deer is both singular and plural. There is no such thing as deers.

[4naccord]

sorry to hear about the "act of god" but at least it wasn't worse. Set back's happen and we rebuild.

[TomQuick]

No deer jerky will be forthcoming. It was a bloody mess, and there was NO WAY I was putting that thing in my car, plus I live in a condo, so there is no place that I could have kept it overnight, and no way I was finding a butcher at 8:00 last night.

I did get lucky, it could have been a lot worse, and I will rebuild. I'll be sad not having my car for a while, but it will come back better than it was before.

As strange as this is, the driver of the SUV certainly did know she had hit it. It turns out, the SUV belongs to my boss's sister in law. She got home, then called him because she didn't know what to do. When I asked him if she drove a black SUV, and then told him where she hit the deer he said how did you know, so I told him that it pretty much bounced off her, and spun right into the front of my car. She was so shaken up, she didn't even know that there was another car there when it happened.

vietkid-2006, I couldn't agree with you more. It is our own fault, we built houses, and roads all through land that animals have roamed for thousands of years. We should have either elevated our roads, or put up barriers, and made passageways so that the animals could get past the roads without having to cross them. However, that doesn't make it suck any less when half of the front of my car is in my trunk.

[TomQuick]

It's been a long day, but I've gotten a lot done. While the bumper cover is going to need to be replaced, I was able to patch most of it back together enough to be usable. The lower center section of it is gone. It was all broken up, and hanging down, so I just cut the whole section out. I removed the remaining bits of the lip, and splash shield as well. A healthy dose of Duck Tape fixed up the remaining bits of the bumper cover enough to be serviceable for the time being. Some good clear weather seal tape covered up the holes in the drivers side headlight lens, and I got some of that horrible looking orange lens repair tape to fix up the bumper light on the drivers side.

On the passengers side, the ground wire was pulled out of the terminal on the bumper light. After plenty of fidgeting, and the utterance of plenty more foul words, I finally managed to release the terminal from the plastic bit of the wiring connector, then bared a bit more of the end of the wire, and crimped it, then soldered it in place. I always solder those connections, because there simply is no way to ever crimp one of those terminals on as securely at home as the factory crimp is. With the wire soldered back in, I clipped the terminal back into place in the plastic housing, and hooked it back up. There was no damage to the passengers side bumper light, or the bulb, and it worked nicely once I fixed the wiring.

On the drivers side, I needed a new bulb for the bumper light. The corner light was a different story. Both of the bulbs were shattered. It took me like 10 minutes just to shake all the bits of broken glass out the holes in the back of the housing. Both of the bulb sockets were damaged. The front one is missing the bit that the wiring harness locks into. The harness still plugs in fine, but it doesn't have the locking mechanism. The rear socket is a different story. The par that plugs into the wiring harness is fine, but the tabs that lock it into the light housing are gone. Since the light housing was also broken, I just used some quicksteel epoxy to secure the second bulb socket into place.

The two plastic posts at the rear of the corner light were sheared off as well. I drilled small holes into the plastic base where the posts had been, and threaded some screws into the holes. The screws are pretty long, allowing me to slip them into the holes in the fender to hold the light in place.

Finally, a few new bolts, nuts, and washers secured the ends of the bumper back into place on the fenders, and it's good to go. All of my headlights, marker lights, and signal lights are once again working, and the drivers side headlight is aimed reasonably well. It will do until I get the bits I need to put the front end together a bit more correctly.

I took some pictures this afternoon, and will get them posted tomorrow. Understand that they don't show all the damage, because I cut off the hanging bits on the side of the road, and got the bumper largely back into place so that I could drive it home, but you should still be able to get a good idea of the damage that was done.

[TomQuick]

Pictures

Ok, so here's the pictures. As I mentioned before, I had already patched it up a bit before I took these, so there is some duct tape holding the bumper on, and keeping one of the bumper lights in place.


The hood doesn't sit that far up, I had it released to look in the engine bay for any damage.



The bumper cover there was pretty well destroyed. Without the tape, the bumper light was pretty well just hanging out of the opening.


The center section of the bumper cover is gone, along with most of the lip, and the engine splash shield. The worst of the damage is the lower section of the radiator core support. It didn't hit the frame member behind it, so it could have been a lot worse.




The drivers side headlight, and bumper light are both toast.


The orange bit of the corner light broke too, and the light took on a lot of water. I removed the rest of the orange, and wound up drilling holes to let the water drain, so it won't build back up.


Lost the drivers side fender liner too. The fender liner was an ebay part, and I wasn't terribly happy with the way it fit anyway, but I had just put in all new clips from Honda to secure it. Those stupid things are expensive, and their remains are scattered along the side of the road. It's not visible in this picture, however it is obvious that some part of the deer hit the windshield washer bottle too. It has some stress lines in it, but no cracks. I guess I'm lucky there was no damage to the brake hose, or ABS sensor.


Finally, the front view. All things considered, it doesn't look that bad.


In the last picture, you can see that I made a temporary repair to the lens on the drivers side bumper light. I also got bulbs back in the bumper light, and the corner light, and replaced the broken clips that attach the ends of the bumper cover to the fender with some bolts and washers, so the bumper cover is secure, which allowed me to get rid of all the duck tape that was holding the passengers side of the bumper on. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

I hope to order a new set of headlights, and bumper lights probably tomorrow, and perhaps a new bumper cover within the next week or so, and the rebuilding process will begin.

[TomQuick]

I just ordered up some Depo headlights, and clear bumper lights. Gotta start looking for a bumper soon.

Sadly, this means putting off the clutch a bit longer (hope it holds together) while I put the front end of the car back together.

[ACC0RD22]

That sucks. When we had all the snow in PA, I backed over a mound that was just a bit too high leaving my driveway. My bumper is now held up in the back by zip ties until I can fix it properly. Ill probably do that over Easter Break.

[F20A CB7]

hey your car color is nice, sheesh b grateful u didnt have 1 piecers and or something.

[ACC0RD22]

hey your car color is nice, sheesh b grateful u didnt have 1 piecers and or something.

We dont have JDM one piece lights. Only two piece blackhoused.