A friend related a story about this dude who saw some fresh road kill (deer) on the road side while driving home one evening. He stopped, loaded the deer into his truck and set off to fire up his grill. The injured deer regained consciousness and nearly killed him, thrashing its hooves in terror. The frightened Deer knocked out all the widows and eventually got away.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Deer-Vehicle crashes result in at least $1.1 billion a year in vehicle damage. And it is estimated that about 200 people die every year in the US as a result animal-to-auto crashes – these animals are mainly Deer.

Lately, I have noticed a few Volvo’s that have incurred body damage, mainly due to deer-vehicle collision. Fortunately, If you are driving a Volvo S80, you are in good hands. I say this because a couple weeks ago a customer driving an S80 crashed head on into a Buck or male deer while driving on the Capital Beltway (I- 495).

Remarkably, the customer survived unscathed by the collision with the huge deer, and he was all praises for his Volvo S80, which did not even deploy the airbags. This was most likely because he hit the deer dead center, on the front end of the car. The impact sensors that trigger the airbags are located on the bumper, near the headlights on either end of the car.

On a very wet cold morning in January 2011, one of our brand new loaner cars, a Volvo S80 with only 900 miles on the odometer was a complete right off after a head-on collision with a speeding Porsche on highway 270. The speeding Porsche started to spin wildly, out of control in the middle of the highway, slamming head-on into the on coming S80 at 60 mph.

The lady driving the Loner car (Volvo S80), who happened to be a doctor, walked away without a scratch.
When she came in the next day to pick up her car after regular service had been done, she went directly to the showroom to buy a new Volvo S80. That car had saved her life.

The population of deer has exploded in the Washington DC Area, and I see dead and dying deer on the road side pretty frequently nowadays. And as you might know, the fall season — mainly October,November and December is the Deer breeding season –  the peak season for deer/vehicle crashes.

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), 36 million auto owners don’t have comprehensive insurance in the USA. So, when you hit that deer in your headlights, you are on your own. Get comprehensive insurance because it pays up in such crashes. Liability insurance is a gamble you cannot afford to make, at least not with the high cost of repairing your Volvo out of pocket.

Vehicle-Deer Collisions Tips:

  • Deer move in groups, and they walk in single file. Watch out if you see one leap across the road as another may be right behind it.
  • Use your high beam headlights if there is no on coming traffic. Watch out if Deer eyes are illuminated.
  • I usually see deer crossing roads early in the morning, at dawn right before sunrise, also watch out at dusk before sunset. (These are prime times for Deer-Vehicle collisions)
  • Your chances are better off hitting a 200 pound deer head on like our customer did and survive. If you veer off the lane you may not survive colliding with a 3000 pound vehicle, a truck or even crashing into a tree.
  • Don’t try to remove a deer from the road unless you are sure that it is dead.
  • Comprehensive insurance covers Deer damage while Liability insurance does not.

Hitting a Deer will probably not kill you because the animal weighs about 200 pounds, but what will kill you is not wearing a safety belt as a result of your car veering out of the road and crashing into a tree.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway safety (IIHS), 60% of the people killed riding in vehicles weren’t using safety belts.

Please choose wisely and get comprehensive coverage. Choose not to be a statistic by wearing your safety belt.

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