Accident with a deer - Minor damage in front

[nixsan]

I met with an accident wherein a deer hit right in the front of my 2025 R1S Gen2. Damaged the black panel on the passenger front side near the hitch and one of the sensor seems to have got either lost or it got punched inside the panel. Attached is the photo. Surprisingly neither the vehicle automatically detect and stop when the deer came in front of my car nor did it record anything. I filed a police complaint as well.
What I need to know is whether I should go directly to Rivian to get the estimate of the repair and fix it or should I go thru insurance company to get it fixed. My comp. deductible is $250.

Also, does anyone know what is the part number of the broken black panel.

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[captainjp]

Deer are vermin…

 

[stanseling]

Call Rivian Service, they will give you the name of the nearest certified repair center.

 

[Captain JB]

WE were hit by a deer in July near Klamath Falls on our way to Sunriver, Oregon. It was more a blunt hit than yours with more damage. Does your A/Cwork? Ours was damaged and my understanding is the A/C also is part of the system that cools the battery. Everting worked fine (it is a tank) even though I was doing the speed limit of 65mph when we saw it except once we got to a hot area coming back home to LA down the hot central valley, the battery got too hot to charge and had to be towed home. Rivian will give you a name of their approved repair station and they will do the work and bill your insurance company directly. Of course you will pay the deductible. It took about a month to repair the car and calibrate everything and the Insurance paid $16.5K to the repair station. Make SURE the incident falls under your Comprehensive coverage and not under the Collision category so your insurance premium wont go up. It is a natural act or act of God and not a collision with another vehicle or man made object is why it falls under comprehensive. JB

 

[nixsan]

Thank you for the response. I have taken an appointment with the authorized repair shop which is 10 days from now. Good to know that under comprehensive coverage, insurance premium does not get impacted.

 

[sfvR1S]

Deer are vermin…

Seems harsh.

I'm sure deer aren't hiding by the side of the road chomping at the bit to jump out in front of unsuspecting vehicles and ending their own lives in the process.

 

[riverie]

I'm sure deer aren't hiding by the side of the road chomping at the bit to jump out in front of unsuspecting vehicles and ending their own lives in the process.

You ever drive around western Pennsylvania? That is EXACTLY how they behave here.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ same in upstate NY, it's their (the deer) way of culling the herd/population control!

 

[Dave Cundiff]

My observation of deer, @sfvR1S, is that they are acutely sensitive to danger -- but, much like human three-year-olds, their brains can only attend to one thing at a time.

So yes, deer DO charge right in front of a car -- because, I think, something other than cars or the road scared them first. It's often something in the forest that we never saw, or they got scared of being separated from their group, or something else that we can't see or guess.

When I see a deer or elk, I calculate whether it can reach my path if it runs in the most foolish possible direction. If that's even a possibility, I hit the brakes pretty hard.

That would have saved me from my one lifetime deer strike, in fall 2016. But it still wouldn't deal with the problem of deer charging out of the forest onto the road without any warning whatsoever.

Sometimes deer run into the car's path. Sometimes they even run into the car's side! Their brains are working as designed -- but deer don't think as humans think.

Adult wapiti (elk) have more capable brains. They CAN pay attention to more than one thing at a time. Elk calves, however, can act just as impulsively as adult deer do. Ask me how I know.

Best wishes for safety out there!

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