Accumulator
Well-known member
Last Wednesday, Accumulatorette and I were in the S8 travelling south through West Virginia on I77. A young deer jumped over the guardrail from below my line of sight and trotted across the highway in front of us. With a couple seconds to respond, I was able to avoid hitting it and it made it across the highway. But then a SECOND deer, a LARGE doe did the same thing, but with HER I didn’t get the same few seconds. She was just *NOT* there, then *RIGHT THERE*, jumped over the guardrail into my lane RIGHT in front of me. I clearly remember seeing her left eye. I only had time to steer right/left (truly a split-second response), but I managed to JUST bump her on the rump. She seemed to be uninjured, or at least not seriously, and she, like the first one, made it across the highway (moving like she was OK), despite rather heavy traffic that had come up behind us. The aluminum S8, however, took quite a hit. Funny that the car suffered so much more apparent damage than the animal.
I pulled over and assessed the damage: primarily cosmetic- hood, front bumper cover, left fender. The FUNCTIONAL damage was limited the left head/fog/turn signal lights and the left sideview mirror. I removed the mirror with my ParaTool so it wouldn’t flop around and scratch the car, and pushed the remains of the headlight back into the fender. And I checked that the hood was gonna stay latched.
When we arrived at our destination, I effected some field-expedient repairs: I removed the broken headlight parts, unplugged the related electrical connectors, and taped them up and out of the way. I covered the gaping headlight hole with cardboard and taped it all up with first electrical, then black duct tape (tip: electrical tape often sticks better to slippery surfaces than duct tape does). I cut back the wires that went to the sideview mirror and taped them up so they wouldn’t short out the circuit if it rained or I had to use the defroster.
This afternoon (Sunday), we made the drive back without incident, though we got home early so as not to have to drive at night with only one headlight.
Observations:
- What happened was MY FAULT, or at least, MY RESPONSIBILITY. If I’m driving the vehicle, whatever happens to it (wildlife, other drivers, meteorites), it’s MY job to deal with it. No excuses. I dealt with the first deer OK, but not the second one.
- Had I not taken driving courses at places like Skip Barber and Bondurant, my wife and I would probably be dead. I automatically did the right thing under stress, as I was trained to do, and that was the ONLY thing that could’ve worked under the circumstances. Had I hesitated to “think�, and/or hit the deer square-on, or worse yet, applied the brakes and THEN hit it (think weight-transfer/nose dive), it would’ve gone through the windshield- GAME OVER.
I pulled over and assessed the damage: primarily cosmetic- hood, front bumper cover, left fender. The FUNCTIONAL damage was limited the left head/fog/turn signal lights and the left sideview mirror. I removed the mirror with my ParaTool so it wouldn’t flop around and scratch the car, and pushed the remains of the headlight back into the fender. And I checked that the hood was gonna stay latched.
When we arrived at our destination, I effected some field-expedient repairs: I removed the broken headlight parts, unplugged the related electrical connectors, and taped them up and out of the way. I covered the gaping headlight hole with cardboard and taped it all up with first electrical, then black duct tape (tip: electrical tape often sticks better to slippery surfaces than duct tape does). I cut back the wires that went to the sideview mirror and taped them up so they wouldn’t short out the circuit if it rained or I had to use the defroster.
This afternoon (Sunday), we made the drive back without incident, though we got home early so as not to have to drive at night with only one headlight.
Observations:
- What happened was MY FAULT, or at least, MY RESPONSIBILITY. If I’m driving the vehicle, whatever happens to it (wildlife, other drivers, meteorites), it’s MY job to deal with it. No excuses. I dealt with the first deer OK, but not the second one.
- Had I not taken driving courses at places like Skip Barber and Bondurant, my wife and I would probably be dead. I automatically did the right thing under stress, as I was trained to do, and that was the ONLY thing that could’ve worked under the circumstances. Had I hesitated to “think�, and/or hit the deer square-on, or worse yet, applied the brakes and THEN hit it (think weight-transfer/nose dive), it would’ve gone through the windshield- GAME OVER.
:xyxthumbs about the car and how I was dealing with it. It garnered a fair amount of attention all weekend, and I must admit I think it looks sorta cool in a been-and-done/tested-tough sort of way. Heh heh, people sure got out of my way on the drive home!
