Hi all,

Not the greatest of Thanksgivings except to say that my son is unhurt although the car, 1985 944, is a complete total. So maybe it is a great Thanksgiving after all. Coming home from SLO, 5 miles from the house, a buck jumps out in front him. He's doing 45mph on a straight 2 lane road through Pleasant Valley. Instinct takes over instead of rational thought and he swerves to try to avoid deer, bumps the deer with rear passenger quarter panel on the way to a side slide into a tree. Deer gets up and runs away. Passenger side front quarter takes the hit, car is done.

He carried liability and comprehensive, no collision. CHP on the scene looked for evidence of the deer, none found on car or road. Does anyone have experience with Progressive Insurance in a situation like his, would they be inclined to handle this as a comprehensive claim and take us at our word or will they automatically rule this as a collision claim? Is there anything I can or should say to the claims adjuster (who I'm waiting to hear from) to help get this accident covered under comprehensive?

Thanks for your advice and assistance,
Dennis

 

Sorry to hear... Glad your son is ok.

Pics of the damage? Wish I could help with some advice on the insurance but I'm just a teen myself.

If they total it out though, you'll be well off by buying the car back and parting it out, if you have enough time and place to store the wreck for a while.

 

How old is your son?

 

My son is 23 this past June. Unfortunately I'm having trouble attaching pics of the car, suffice to say it is very bent, the front passenger wheel, control arm, suspension torn off and the shape of an oak tree in their place.

 

Buy the car back and look for another, use it as a parts car for the new one. It's super awesome to have when the little things go wrong.

 

Sorry to hear but thankful he's ok..
I'm a Diamond-Level Progressive member and really like their streamlined handling of issues.

Was your son alone? Any oncoming/following witnesses?
Did he have a smartphone in the car at the time of the incident?
Was it on a call, GPS or text at the time?
Any GoPro film of his Porsche's final few seconds of operating life?
Any deer fur/blood on the quarter?
These can serve as proof of what happened.

Barring those, if collision is how they deem the claim, does your son have $1,250 saved up in the bank for a replacement 944?

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/4210120310.html

Cheaper than Collision over 60 months...

 

If there's no fur or blood on that quarter panel, odds are the progressive adjuster will rule it a collision, and not covered by comprehensive. If he thinks he hit it hard enough that the injury will be fatal, you could maybe head out to the scene of the accident and look for a dead deer, but if you don't find it I don't think Progressive will pay out.

 

I once had Progressive Insurance. Had some (not really serious) damage to the right front bumper, fender, headlight cover. They would only deal with NEW FACTORY PORSCHE parts, so they totaled it out. I even told them where I could get all the used parts to repair it.......no deal. So they paid me off for the total, I bought it back for $500.00, bought all the used parts and fixed it myself. And i still had money left over for upgrades and tools. It gives you a salvage title, and you probably have to go to a state registered shop to have a safety check, but it worked out great for me. I just don't have Progressive any more.

 

Truly sorry to hear this.

How else do they explain the deer dent? I guess that's irrelevant. Like someone above said, go back and look for a deer. I know for a fact that a deer will keep traveling even if it has to walk on 3 legs, until he lays down for good. Your son probably broke one of it's legs. Good luck, insurance companies are ridiculous sometimes.

 

the value of a 944 is not much, a not so nice one can be had for $500, a good running one for $2500 to $3000, and an excellent one for $5,000. Don't waste a lot of time with the insurance company - buy another car - maybe one that is cosmetically nice but doesn't run, and make it run using parts from the damaged car, then sell the rest of the parts and you will be ahead monetarily. I parted out an 87S and got more than $6000, and I still have the trans and hatch and a few other pieces. A normal is worth maybe $1000 less in parts.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Yes I think that Progressive will probably rule collision. We went back to the scene to look for a dead deer way off the road but no evidence of one anywhere. I will definitely be keeping the car and probably picking up another and making one great car out of two so so cars. I'll be posting when I'm ready to start selling parts, taking orders.

 

Is there even a dent where the "deer" was hit on the rear quarter?

 

No, there is no visible deer impact, no fur, nothing but deer tracks in mud a side of road, which conceivably have been there from any tim before. My son said his rear quarter slapped the deer down but didn't hit him extremely hard due to the evasive manuver that caused him to lose control of the car . All we really have is the way his car ended up against the tree, 90 degrees to the direction of the road, or a straight road, dry, no cross traffic. Something obviously caused him to make a hard left at 45mph, and deer is only logical option, not to mention I believe his recollection of the event. This is our 5th encounter with deer in the 20 years I've lived in El Dorado County. First one that resulted in a total loss. The deer have migrated down this year in numbers I have never seen before. Last week there were five dead deer on the freeway! Imagine hitting one of these animals at 70MPH? The tow truck driver says he tows at least one deer vs car event every night, and he is just one driver. He said the other drivers have similar numbers. His advice "Don't drive at night." I'll continue to look for evidence on the car today, another trip to the crash site yesterday revealed nothing. The CHP wrote the accident up as "Deer impact, no evidence".

 

So what do you want to know? Your son only carried liability, and there is no evidence of a deer hit. Progressive owes you guys nothing. I would however buy the car back cheap and either part it or transfer the parts over to another one. Deer are pest, sorry to hear, but glad your son is ok.

 

Not so. Comprehensive insurance (while normally covering the vehicle when not in motion) will actually cover impact with an animal, even while the vehicle is in motion. Some states will even give you the option of filing the claim under collision or your comprehensive policy if you had both. They typically need to see evidence of the impact with the animal though (otherwise they will put it under the collision policy category), which is why the OP is having issue.