Hunky Husband's latest adventure gave him a new appreciation for the descriptive "deer in the headlights look". He said that, in an instant, he saw the deer's eyes staring into the headlights. Then, there was a thud. When he put his foot on the brake pedal, he found that no brakes were left to activate - the automatic collision avoidance system had already applied maximum controlled braking. Finally, the air bag was in his face and he felt the warmth of the bag on his forearms. Then, the car's electronic display showed the latitude, longitude of his position and the audio system came on with a call from Lincoln's monitoring service: "Are you hurt?" "How old are you?" "Where are you?"
He was not injured - at least, not badly enough that he knew about it. All he knew was that he was covered with powder from the air bag. He told the woman that he was 82 (probably only asked to assess his mental alertness following a harrowing event) and that he didn't know where he was. Following discussion about mileage markers, he was able to tell the woman that he had just entered the I-135 Interstate Highway at McPherson, Kansas. (The woman had told him that the latitude and longitude was not sufficient.) She told HH that she would dispatch emergency personnel - who arrived in a very few minutes.
HH was very pleased with the services everyone provided him, with especially kind words for the Sergeant from the McPherson County Sheriff's office. As it happened, the poor deer had fallen into the left-hand lane following its mortal impact by HH's car, and was run over by another automobile. Unfortunately, the second automobile was more badly damaged than was HH's.
A semi-wrecker arrived and loaded HH's car at which time one of the law enforcement people took HH to the Walmart mentioned in the previous posting.
When Elder Brother and I picked up HH to take him home, we could see that HH had barely gotten onto I-135: he probably had not yet reached the speed limit of 75 mph. (I-135 was a distance of about 60-65 miles from the motel in Great Bend.)
When we unloaded HH's car, yesterday, I asked the woman at the towing company to send us the photos that she had sent to our insurance company. (I had taken a camera, but saw no reason to duplicate her efforts.) Those photos are below. As you can see, the car looks drivable. Except for the blown airbag and resetting of the fuel system (which is automatically cut off in a collision), it probably was/is.
BTW: Someone chastised me for having failed to ask HH how he was when he called me following the impact. I knew he was OK because I heard him asked by the sheriff's deputy - and heard his answer that his knee had gotten banged, but not badly enough to need medical services. That knee has been fine, according to HH.
Wow was he lucky not to have more damage, or that the deer wasn't thown onto the hood and into the windshield. So glad he is okay.
As for asking his age the gal really has no clue and he could have said 35 and she would not have known if the answer was correct, so couldn't judge mental acuity from that. However, emergency responders need to know so they can be prepared - younger persons are not likely to have severe reactions to stress such as heart attacks, blood clots etc. Even the likelihood of broken bones from even a light bump is much higher.
As for asking if he is okay, pffft, I assume that a person is okay if they are calling me and not telling me that they are headed to the hospital. There were emergency responders with him, so it's not like he was all alone - they would have intervened if there were an issue.
Posted by: bogie | June 24, 2018 at 04:20 AM
Bogie--Good points. However, "she" could not assume that HH was OK by the call. The car's system placed the call, not your dad. (I found that the system did use your dad's phone, however, since he synchronizes it to his car's SYNC system.)
The person who answered the car's call was the person who sent the emergency personnel; so, she was making first contact. This is one of the great features present in some of the newer cars. GM is airing ads, these days, featuring "On Star" as it is called in GM products, coincidentally enough, featuring an accident involving a deer. (I'll post more on the system.)
There are two reasons it was "better" that your dad hit the deer instead of my having hit it: 1) My phone is so old that it won't synchronize to my car, so the call would not have been automatically placed by my car and 2) I self-insure (except for liability) my car. In addition, even were my insurance good for a deer strike, my deductible is $1,000 while HH's is $500. BTW: Our insurance agent told HH that the accident would not cause his rates to go up since it was a deer strike.
Posted by: Cop Car | June 24, 2018 at 12:40 PM
P.S. The car may have been drivable; but, we shall probably never know. The insurance company is 90% sure it is a total write-off. They will bring it to Wichita to sell at auction. Their preliminary estimate is $16-$18 thousand for repairs - mostly because of the large number of sensors that would need replacing. Dudette had the best guess in the family: $10-$15 thousand.
HH borrowed my car to go talk to the Lincoln dealer. Buying a sedan is getting tricky, these days. Car makers have responded to the market by making, mostly, pickups, SUVs, and crossovers. He borrowed my car because I talked him into sharing my car rather than renting a car. I could just see him trying to adapt to a rental car - not! Did I tell you that we do not take small aggravations well?
Posted by: Cop Car | June 25, 2018 at 03:53 PM
I think Ford has quit selling cars altogether. The closest thing is the Eco Sport, which is a small SUV.
That cost is quite unsettling when you look at the seemingly small amount of damage. But, it has way more doodads than I can even imagine, and "repairs" sometimes don't work the way they should (even when done correctly - electronics can be finicky things and chasing issues with them a nightmare)
Posted by: bogie | June 30, 2018 at 06:22 PM