My husband bumped into a deer last week.
Seriously. As much as that sounds like a joke — and there is a funny story to it because he, the car and hopefully the deer are all OK — we know he was very fortunate.
There were 23,201 deer-vehicle crashes in 2010, according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, including four fatalities and 1,063 injuries.
Summit and Stark counties are among the five with the highest number of deer-vehicle crashes in the state in 2010 with 630 and 552, respectively. The other top counties are Richland (648), Hamilton (617) and Williams (528). Stark and Summit were also in the top five in 2009, though 2010 numbers were a decrease from 2009.
Vehicle damage can vary dramatically, depending on the vehicle, speed upon impact and the area of impact. According to the Insurance Information Institute, vehicle damage from deer collisions averages $3,100 per claim nationally. Crashes that include bodily injury could increase costs significantly.
The Ohio Insurance Institute estimates Ohio damages approached $72.2 million in 2010 based on the average cost per claim and number of vehicles involved.
With these sobering numbers, I know my husband was very fortunate.
We live in an area with a lot of deer, so we’re always on the lookout. But you hear too often about people who say the deer just dart out of nowhere or they are driving along and the deer hits the side of the vehicle.
At about 7:30 p.m., my husband was picking up our son from a sports practice. He was headed up a large hill and said when he rounded a bend, he saw a deer. He managed to slow the car enough to only be going, by his estimate, about 5 miles per hour. But still, he hit the deer square on.
The deer rolled up onto the hood, did kind of a barrel roll with “hooves up,” as my husband described it, then rolled back off the hood and ran away.
When he inspected the car later in some light, it looked like only the front license plate holder was cracked and had some tufts of fur, but the hood and the rest of the car looked fine. On a closer inspection later, he said it’s possible there’s a scratch, but frankly, the car is getting older, so the scratch could have been there before.
The incident, of course, raised major concerns for the deer’s welfare from our kids (not so much Dad and the car, but I think it’s because they could tell Dad and the car were fine).
Again, it’s pretty remarkable that the whole incident didn’t have a different outcome.
It got me wondering about insurance coverage.
I phoned Mitch Wilson, spokesman for the Ohio Insurance Institute, which represents the state’s property and casualty insurance companies. Vehicle damage from a collision with a deer comes under “other than collision” coverage, or what most people refer to as “comprehensive” coverage.
Comprehensive coverage is not required by Ohio law (that is bodily injury and liability, which takes care of another vehicle and occupants if you hit another vehicle), Wilson said. Most cars that are new or still under a loan usually have comprehensive coverage, required by the lender.
Comprehensive coverage will take care of costs to get your car back to pre-collision condition, after paying your deductible, Wilson said.
That comprehensive coverage will help cover your car in events other than a collision with another car, such as your car catches on fire or you run into a deer.
Actually, it covers “when you hit any type of animal, pig, dog, cow (it happens) horses — think about Amish country,” Wilson said.
If an accident — including a collision with a deer — results in you hitting another vehicle, then the liability portion of your insurance coverage kicks in for the other vehicle’s damage and your bodily injury coverage would cover injuries to passengers in the other vehicle, Wilson said. But the comprehensive coverage is what you get for damages for your own vehicle, he said.
One interesting thing to note: The Ohio Insurance Institute says insurers normally don’t single out deer-vehicle collision losses in determining future premium adjustments. One deer collision alone should not affect your premium.
“Usually, it’s not your fault,” Wilson said. “No one is trying to go out and hit a deer.”
Wilson said there can always be circumstances such as negligence if perhaps a driver was changing his or her iPod instead of looking at the road, but if that deer accident is the only thing that’s happened in a year, it shouldn’t affect your premium. If you’ve had a few other claims, in addition to the deer claim, then the insurance company would most likely be looking at the aggregate of the claims, he said.
Earthquake coverage
The recent earthquake in Northeast Ohio tied to an injection well near Youngstown has people wondering whether they should get earthquake coverage for their homes.
The quake was the 11th over the last eight months in Mahoning County. The Dec. 31 quake was felt in Akron.
Earthquake coverage is an extra endorsement or coverage homeowners can buy on their policy. Most insurers offer such an endorsement, but a few don’t, Wilson said. Also, some homeowners with a top-tier policy might already have earthquake insurance in their policy, he said.
The decision about whether to buy the coverage is up to the homeowner, Wilson said.
“It’s just like any other insurance coverage. Do I want the water backup endorsement in my basement in case water backs up? Do I think that’s going to happen? Does it happen frequently around us? It’s going to be their choice whether they want it or not,” he said.
Coverage is calculated on a per $1,000 basis on your home’s value. Frame homes are cheaper to insure for earthquakes than brick homes, according to the institute, because they can withstand slight earth movement better.
Frame homes can cost between 30 cents to 70 cents per $1,000 coverage on your home. Brick homes will be more. Wilson said typically, the rates for both types of homes in Ohio have been less than $1 per $1,000 coverage.
One big difference in earthquake coverage is that if there is a claim, your standard deductible does not apply. Instead, you pay a percentage deductible, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. For instance, if you have $100,000 in losses from an earthquake and your policy has a 5 percent deductible, you will be responsible for the first $5,000.
“With those types of events, typically they’re catastrophic. If there’s going to be a big one, it’ll be major structural damage,” Wilson said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.
