63 Chevy vs a heard of CATTLE!

this is what happens when black cows get into the road late at night. this happened about two hundred yards from the end of my driveway.
the folks across the street have a heard of cattle and every now and then one or two would get out. well, late sunday night there were more than one or two in the road as i came up to the intersection near my house. i had just eased up on the gas to slow down for the stop when i suddenly noticed a group of cows in the road. i barely had time to react at all and i nailed one HARD. as i'm still swerving to the left to avoid the heard i nailed a second one with the right rear door.
as you can see the damage is pretty bad but the good news is that there does'nt appear to be any damage to the frame and only very slight damage to the cowl. even the front bumper appears to be unscathed. i also feel fortunate that the quarter panel did not sustain any more than a couple of very minor dents that should be easy to fix.
yes it does have full coverage insurance and my neighbor feels terrible about it and has offered to pay the deductable.
so. anyone got some rust free 63 Chevy parts layin around? i need a tailgate too, by the way. that is the only part of the car that has any rust and it has ALOT of it.
even the radiator and fan shroud are damaged and the inner fenderwell is folded up and shoved right up to the heater box.

by the way. both cows are dead. the one i hit hardest (and first) succumed to it's injurys in short order and my neighbor gave the second one a couple shots of lead poisoning so that it did not get infection rendering it inedable.

 

Holy Crap!! Lucky you were already showing down, the outcome could have been much worse. Nice that your neighbours are being decent about it, too.

 

Dude there's cow dung on your ride. That's just wrong!!! Sorry about your wagon>>>>.

 

Looks like it's time for a BB-Q!!

 

trade him the beef for the deductible. 2 sides of prime is worth well more than your deductible!

 

That really sucks, but it could have been worse. Lucky that you walked away.

 

Glad you're not hurt and it's repairable. In high school, a good friend was going home late one night and hit a cow...totalled the cow and the car. He had to pay the farmer for the cow...Louisiana was open range at the time...maybe still is.

 

atleast u have a cool story now

 

How many creases can one fender have?

 

Be thankful you weren't in an S10! One of the Kropdusters from Iowa learned that lesson.

Glad you're OK. You gonna make it to GG Columbus?

Vance

 

For real, I'd be talking to him about what half of the beef from the cows in question comes to...

 

sry bout yor luck my friend, better have your neighbor start digging out some beef for all those long nights of hamb thrashes

 

Yeah, HAMB barbecue, bring your body hammers!

 

That will not buff out........ on the bright side, you now have a reason to get one of those magic shrinking discs and practice bodywork. I hope you get it back on the road soon!

 

i don't eat that much beef anymore so i'd never consume half a cow. LOL i think i'll just take the deductable and start looking for some parts to get her back together.

 

got one but i don't think it's gonna do much good in this case. LOL

 

Do you know a good body guy!

Glad the hear you came out ok. Sorry about the ride.

 

Glad you made it out ok.

Back in 71 my dad got ran off the road by a drunk driver and took out a cow doing about 50 mph. Wrinkled all the panels on the right side of his 67 Impala SS. Him and his buddy made it out ok, pretty sure they walked away. Happened somewhere between Coolidge and San Manuel AZ.

 

Looks like you knocked the shit out of it.

 

Did your neighbor offer ya any steaks,,,,I mean you already did the tenderizing. HRP

 

Maybe you can use the hides for a cool interior!!! If you think body work is dirty, try tanning hides....reeeeeal stinky

 

I have no idea if they will but do you realize that your insurance company can still sue your neighbor to recover their losses?

 

That sucks. Seriously, that's bullshit. Your neighbor should HAVE to pay your deductible for NEGLIGENTLY allowing his cattle to get out. If it was a deer, this would be a different story, they're wild animals. But cattle should be fenced in. This could have been way worse and your neighbor should be thankful the car is the only thing damaged. A 17 year old girl lost her life swerving to avoid a deer not 3 miles from my house a few weeks ago. She wound up sliding driver-door first into a telephone pole at 55 mph, which is the speed limit.

Sorry for sounding kinda pissed for you, but I think a lot of the people on this board making steak and tenderized meat remarks don't know what it's like to have a classic car smashed up due to someone's fuck up. The fact that your premiums might go up for having to make the claim is further bullshit. Just hope the insurance company doesn't total it.

 

You're absolutely right. It's called subrogation. Your insurance company will pay you, then sue your neighbor/neighbor's homeowner's insurance company because he fucked up and caused the accident.

 

in california your insurance company would go after your neighbor for the total of the damage. so you may wanna look into that. the animals are his responsibility. i am by no means saying screw your nieghbor but that is the law in cali.

 

We just discussed the issue of hitting livestock on the roads the other day. I was told that the owner of the cattle is not liable for the damage unless he is shown to be negligent. Now if his cattle are always out, maybe he is negligent but otherwise, if he tries to keep them in it is the same as hitting a deer.

I am not an attorney nor do play one on t.v.

Neal

 

That sucks, Mike! At least you're OK and the car is saveable. Magnet almost hit a herd on the way to Indy in his 62 a few years ago. He came over a hill and there stood this herd! He slid right through the middle of them missing them all!

 

Had a Cessna Citation(small jet plane) do this at an airport I used to work at.
He was 800' short of the runway approaching from the wrong direction in the
middle of the night with no runway lighting.(can you say contraband?) By the
looks of the pasture they set it down sweet and made it a couple hundred
feet before the first cow took out a main landing gear. That changed its
direction and the rest of the cows separated the wing at took out the nose
gear. Found it and 5 cows the next morning with no sign of the crew. They
were in town at a hotel sleeping it off.

Good to hear your OK and all that front sheetmetal is being repopped. I've
got a few 63 tailgates(mostly rusty) but I pulled the skin off the best one
to install a nos skin I picked up years ago. The skin I pulled off is rust free
but the PO used the tailgate to tell him when to stop,hooking his boat
trailer up. The lower body line is messed up(inline with the hinge pins) and
the lip is gone around the panel,but your welcome to it if you could use it.
PM me if your interested.

 

As far as the liability goes, I'd bet the livestock owners are liable for the damages. In Illinois the owner is anyway. Sucks about the car, but at least you are ok.

 

I know here in Oklahoma the owner of the livestock is liable for the full amount of damages.

I remember awhile back (20 years or so) a neighbor had some cattle get out and a someone wound up hitting one at around midnight or so. Anyway, the driver of the car gets out, and wanders about a half mile up the road to find somewhere to call for help. By the time everyone got back to the scene of the accident, there was a nice, freshly skinned section of the cow's hind end missing. Seems the owner of the cow heard the accident, rolled up and skinned off any incriminating evidence.

Personally, with regard to the accident described in this post, you should have to pay nothing for the repairs to your car. The owner of the cattle who are always getting out is liable for everything. If he pays your deductible, who gets stuck with the higher insurance premiums?