Deer... ugh.

So, as I'm sitting here in the high school building in math/algebra class as a substitute during my conference period, I had to call my insurance company to make a statement about the little accident that happened a couple of weekends ago. My very first accident, and, of course, it had to be a deer.

Marcee, Tayt (her boyfriend), and I left for Wheeler around 9:30pm on a Saturday night to drop Tayt off after he and Marcee had hung out that day. After we dropped him off, Marcee and I started driving back to Canadian. Around 10:30pm, a semi-truck was coming towards us, so I turned off my brights and about 25-30 feet later, there was a deer, not just any deer, but a buck, standing right in the middle of the road on the yellow striped line. Luckily, I was already going 5 mph under the night-time speed limit (which put me going 60 mph).

I barely saw the deer, slammed on my brakes, and probably go to where I was going around 50 mph. I knew not to swerve because that could lead to flipping the car. I knew to just slam on my brakes and take the hit. At first, the deer took off the other direction, but decided to run right in front of my car. So, I hit the deer. Shaking terribly, I called my parents. I had just called them about 5 minutes earlier to let them know we were on our way back. So, dad tells me to pull over to check out the damage. Much to my surprise, it wasn't too bad, but bad enough. I got an estimate on the damage done and it looks like it's going to cost about $2,200 to repair the damage done to my FJ.

Unfortunately, my deductible is $1,000. Luckily, I don't have to pay for that. But, my sister does, which is that bad part. Dad had decided that Tayt coming down to visit was unnecessary and proceeded to say that it puts our family and his family in danger of hitting a deer or having a wreck that it doesn't need to happen again. So, he then tells her that she will be paying for it because it was her "fun time" and didn't ask for permission for him to come down to begin with. YIKES!! Guess it's very understandable. I'd expect him to do the same towards any of us, including myself, had that happened to someone else.

So, Marcee is stuck with the $1,000 payment. I get a fixed car out of the deal. And, dad and mom have the peace of mind that I will not drive that highway unless I absolutely HAVE to.

It could have been so much worse too. Had the deer hit me in any other way it could have:
(A) gone through the windshield -- leaving us possibly injured.
(B) thrown my car into a spin and we could have hit the ditch and flipped my car or spun into the other lane where the semi-truck was -- leaving us possibly in an ambulance on our way to the ER.

Drastic and possibly exaggerated things that could happen, but hey, like I said, it COULD HAVE happened. God was watching over us and had His hand around us. I thank Him for that and am so thankful that Marcee and I are okay and didn't get hurt! He kept us safe.