lightly munched the 91 Legacy

[muskalope]

Well, after 12 years of ownership (original), the 91 legacy finally met an immovable object. My 16 year old son was driving the car last weekend to a friends house in the country, when a deer appeared on the road in front of him. He swerved to avoid the animal, but went off the road, and hit a dirt berm on the shoulder of the road. The bad part....there was a water vent pipe sunk in concrete in the berm.

 

Well, the concrete sunk pipe ended up being the problem. He hit the berm at about 35 mph, and the concrete went thru the left front wheel, blew the bead on tire, bent the lower A-arm, and sheared off the link to the sway bar. I went to the local pick'n pull and replaced these parts, but there's some unibody work to be done. Things are not quite straight under there. The A-arm mounts to a large stamping that spans the front end from side-to-side, underneath the engine/tranny. I think that got bent back from the impact.

 

I also think the car is bent up in the middle front, since the hood, when latched, sticks up on both sides. Oh yeah, the oil pan has a fist-sized dent in it as well.....no leak, but dented quite well.

 

I've got an appointment with a frame shop next week. Does anybody have any experience with damage like this??

 

Dave

[Dinero]

First, let me say that I am very happy to hear that your son escaped the wreck unharmed. But I thought that I would take this opportuity to bring up a strange auto insurance rule.

If you hit a deer, the accident is not usually chargeable to you. If you attempt to miss the deer, but run off the road instead, the accident is chargeable to you. So, if you don't want your insurance rates to increase, nail that Bambi right in the guts. In many cases, it's probably safer to simply splatter the dumb, tick infested animal than try painic- inspired advoidance tactics. There are millions of deer, but only one me.... it's a real no brainer.

[Suzam]

Hitting a deer at 35 MPH is dangerous. You hit them at a height that they come over the hood right into the windshield. They are of a weight that can cause a lot of damage. I would try to avoid one by at least not hitting it straight on. A glancing hit off a fender it time allows would be preferable. I have always used the rule that if you are heading for an animal give it a chance by braking hard but never swerve. A dog, cat, squirrel, chipmunk or whatever isn't worth hitting a tree, car or other harder objects and risking injury to yourself or passengers. If the animal makes it by you braking it's lucky. If not you’re lucky. At least somebody wins in that situation. Your 16 year old is very lucky it wasn't worse than it turned out. Hope your car gets fixed right when it's all said and done.

[muskalope]

Thanks for reading the inference that my son came out unscathed. As my wife and I said to each other, he's used to getting crashed into from playing football...this was not nearly the toughest hit he's taken this week!

 

I understand your choice of deer vs. swerve. The deer is probably a comp claim, while the swerve and damage is a collision claim. I would be most concerned with a deer coming in thru the windshield on top of me. He made his split-second decision, and I think he did a good job. The concrete pipe thing was just a wrong-place, wrong-time think.

 

I'm sure hoping the frame shop costs are rather minimal. But hey, I've kept this car specifically for the kid to drive.....safe, dependable, reasonably fun to drive. His buddies at school have even given it a nickname....the shaggin' wagon. They battle to get a ride home from football in it....go figure??

 

Dave

[Nug]

My ex-wife said she swerved to miss a deer, but instead she was looking for a CD. Bashed up a cherry VW beetle.

Anyway, I have never met you, but I already trust you and your son's driving ability more than her.

Hope the car straightens out ok, they really are excellent vehicles.

[99obw]

My $0.02 FWIW

 

Let me start by saying I am glad to hear that everyone is ok.

 

I hope I don't sound too harsh but this is a topic I unfortunately have way too much experience with.

 

NEVER swerve to miss a deer. Hit the brakes as hard as safely possible and hold the wheel relatively steady. Injury from hitting a deer is rare. I have hit and killed 4 deer with various cars. My mom, brother, and stepdad have hit countless deer. Nobody in my family has been injured hitting a deer. If your vehicle makes you that vulnerable and you live in a heavily deer populated area like we do I recommend getting a safer vehicle. We lost a guy at work two years ago that hit a deer at night in the fall on a motorcycle. Clearly not an appropriate vehicle. No amount of swerving will prevent a collision when an adult deer runs full speed into your path from behind cover at night.

 

Case in point:

 

My 11 year old neice suffered some serious internal injuries after her mom swerved to miss a deer and hit a similar sounding immovable object. She now is missing one kidney and her spleen IIRC.

 

12 days and counting until (shotgun) hunting season. :-)

[frag]

When I was a teenager, the first day I reported to summer work as groundman for a utility company, two wouldbe co-workers did'nt show up. They both died after hitting a cow with their car. I dont remember the exact detail of the accident.

Hitting an animal that size (cow, deer, moose) is VERY dangerous.

Also glad everyone implicated in the previous stories went relatively unscated.

[DerFahrer]

I am quite proud of your son for having more decision-making skills than your average 16-year-old driver. The dirtpile was a very good idea, that dang pipe is what ruined the whole thing:banghead: !

 

I would say have an alignment, and have a good one. If the car isn't exactly straight somewhere, find a way to fix it. Unfortunately, the car will never drive exactly the same again :brolleye:

 

And yes, the first-gen Legacies are 10 times more fun than they appear to be

[paladin_w]

I have had similar experience I glance hit a horse with my 92' Legacy wagon, really messed up the front right fender, and shattered my windshield. Had the internal and suspension fixed, lived with the visible damage. I did have future problems with the front right trans axel. I replaced it two times but it would start clicking after about every 5,000 miles. A mechanic said I would have to replace the entire axel because it was tweaked a little bit and would continue to go through trans axils until replaced. Good luck with it.

[Setright]

No, no, no, pull the handbrake and broadside the poor animal!

 

 

Just kidding, it's always gonna be tricky to make the right decision in such circumstances, so here's my advice that will count in any situation:

 

1: Keep your thumbs OUT of the steering wheel, if you hit something the wheel can spin round fast enough to break them off.

 

2: If driving a Legacy, and like me more than six feet tall, make sure your left knee is free of the steering wheel. The wheel well has a tendency to crunch in off-centre impacts and you'll need your knee to move backward, past the steering wheel.

 

3:Don't pinch pennies when buying tyres!

[99obw]

Obviously the line for swerving has to be drawn somewhere. I think horse, cow, moose, elephant, human for sure. Dog maybe. Deer or anything smaller, not for me.

 

I worry a little about the guy I ride to work with. He swerved bigtime at 65 MPH to miss a huge deer carcass in the road earlier this week. I have visions of him yanking the wheel on the freeway at 75 MPH. Yikes!!! That day we saw about 6 deer dead on our 48 mile trip to work. I have seen around 4 per day since then.

 

Back to the topic at hand. A parts car might not be a bad investment.

[Lorryb]

Deer are bad to hit, cows are bad to hit but at least they won't jump into you like a deer will but the absolute worst is a moose "lap dance"

[ScoobySchmitty]

Originally posted by muskalope

His buddies at school have even given it a nickname....the shaggin' wagon. They battle to get a ride home from football in it....go figure??

 

Dave

 

Funny you should mention that. That's what my friends have named my 91 Legacy Good to hear your son was unharmed. I had a run in with the local wildlife last winter, and it could have been worse! Kudos to your son for good accident avoidance thinking, too bad that pipe was there... Hope you get the 91 fixed, keep us posted!

 

ScoobySchmitty

[muskalope]

Thanks for all the notes. We've had talks about what the best decision was for this deer incident. I've heard from others too that say brake straight and hard, and don't leave the road/lane. We talked this out, and he understands. With the low front-end of the Legacy, nailing a deer could result in the deer in your windshield. I've told him that I support what he did, he evaluated the situation, and made his decision. When nobody is hurt, then it was a good decision. With 10-20 years more of experience, he might have different results, but I'm OK with the result.

 

I take the car to the frame shop tomorrow. I'm sure I'll find a reasonable cost in getting this straightened. Also, the tires on the car were virtually brand new.....2 weeks old, and good tires too! And it's great where I live....there's a pick-n-pull yard about 15 minutes away, with about 8-10 legacy's there in pretty good shape for parts. There are even 2 with good left front fenders of the right color if I choose to replace it. Heck, the lower A-arm only cost $28.....Pretty good, I thought, and I could shop a bit in the yard and pick the one I wanted.

 

So, I think the car will become the local, around town car, and we'll leave the freeway stuff to the rest of the family fleet. I really like the car, and need it around for the next 3-4 years, while my boys are high-school drivers. Gotta have one of these older, but safe, cars to save on the insurance $'s when rates are so high.

 

Also, you are right. I've had a number of sporty, fun-to-drive cars, and the Legacy fits up there in the handling and fun-to-drive. It's kind of a sleeper, with the wagon-look.

 

Later,

 

Dave

[brus brother]

HeHeHe... Lap dancing with a Moose. Great imagery, LorryB.

Yep, the notion of a high school car is certainly one to consider during those "learning" years of turning any rectangular car into an oval (deer or no deer). Glad to hear the lad passed the crash test.

[Meeky Moose]

heh, least ya got off and can acctually fix your soob.. my wife slid my acura into a dirt bank, and totaled it..

 

 

on the other hand, swerving can sometimes be uncontrollable..

 

was drivin down my road to my house in the ole ford, only goin about 45mph, dog runs out, i lock up all 4 tires.. truck slides sideways, so i let off to keep from rollin it,, jumped off the side of the road (4 foot drop easy), plowed through a few trees, and ended up in someones front yard..

 

26 year old ford trucks don't slide straight... least i only broke the mirror..

[kgb4187]

Also if a deer is in the road infront of you at night, turn off the headlights so they have a chance to get out of the way (whole deer caught in the headlights deal). Works for me when I go on the fun roads at night. Dang deer like hiding right around curves around here.

[muskalope]

I just got back from the frame and alignment shop. Took the car in and had the guy look at it, and see if it was 1) easy to fix, or 2) how much to yank-it on the frame adjusted to square up again.

 

Well, after examination, he said it was in pretty good shape after the replacement of the lower A-arm. All it needed was an alignment, and it's good to go. Of course there are a few other details, cosmetic related, that need some work.

 

a) Left front fender is creased and bowed, but I saw 2 good fenders, of the right color, at the Pick-n-pull yard.

 

need to do some work to the front grill area, and the square-tube cross-member where the hood latch is. The hood when latched, sits up about 1/2" above both fenders on the edge seam.

 

c) need to replace the left front turn-signal and lens, since that broke.

 

And have talked to the land-owner about the concrete sunk pipe. She talked to the county, and it's an unused pipe vent. She asked if we'd come out and cap it off on the pipe, and remove the concrete and pipe. Instead of hassling with her about it, I just agreed. I figured that would be easier, and part of a good lesson for my son.

 

So far, I'm still under $100. Figuring fender and other misc. items, I'm thinking I'll stay under $150 for the total.

 

Dave

[gbhrps]

Muskalope, I followed the entire thread through from start to finish and found everyone's imputs to be most interesting. Car aside, and everyone else's 2 cents worth as well, and its very obvious that your son is a very fortunate young man. He has a father who has taught him, and continues to teach him the merits of being frugal, ensuring the safety of your loved ones, and being responsible for your actions. You have my respect!

[muskalope]

Thanks, gbhrps. I appreciate the kind words. I'm most grateful for my son's health, then the lessons. The condition of the car comes last, but that's the "vehicle" for the lessons.

 

Dave