Deer accidents covered under comprehensive insurance policy

QYou made several good suggestions about encountering deer when driving. I’d like to augment the comment about not swerving. You wrote, “Do not swerve. It could cause you to lose control or place you in the path of an oncoming vehicle.”

My insurance company has told me that if I swerve to miss a deer, go off the road and damage my car, insurance might not cover repairs because I could have avoided leaving the road.

My follow-up question: “But you’ll cover car damage if I actually hit the deer, right?” And the answer was yes, because that would have been unavoidable.

So unless I’m about to hit ( heaven forbid) a human, I won’t swerve for deer, elk, cows, etc., because if I leave the roadway, any damage or injury is not covered by my insurance.

Go figure.

— Dan Juchau

ACall your insurance agent. Deer accidents are covered under a comprehensive coverage policy but can vary from company to company. Hitting an inanimate object is a collision, and those accidents often come with higher deductibles and higher surcharges than incidents covered by comprehensive policies. These policies usually cover everything, including animal accidents.

Contact with animals specifically is listed as a loss covered by “other than collision,” which means comprehensive coverage.

Said Katherine-theRoadshow-Adviser:

“As a teenager, my dad said ‘as much as this will upset you, hit the animal.’

“If you hit an animal, it goes against your comprehensive coverage and is usually a lower deductible.

“If you swerve and hit a car or other object, it will be paid, but you will most likely be charged for an at-fault accident and it is reported to the DMV.

“Plus, collision deductibles are much higher than a comprehensive deductible.”

Q

I’d like to share an experience I had in the Santa Cruz Mountains

with a deer and my little MGB roadster.

As I rounded a curve at night, with a steep decline on the left, and an open area on the right leading up a hillside, I saw a deer in my headlights in the open area.

Figuring the deer would bound across the open area and up the hillside if I honked, I did so. Much to my surprise, the startled deer ran across the road into my path, creating a deer-MGB collision.

The deer was knocked on its back, bounced once, and went over the steep decline, to disappear forever.

The MGB’s aluminum hood has evidence of that collision to this day. The moral of this story: Expect the unexpected when honking at deer. — Larry Koepke, San Jose

AYes, deer can be unpredictable when startled by a loud horn.