Hit A Deer

[Sam]

This morning running 65 going to work I hit a large deer dead center. I was in my wife's Cadillac Deville. Car is probably totalled. I usually drive a Honda Civic, but it needs a new radiator, which it will get tomorrow. I wonder if I would have been killed in the Civic. The Caddy's crumple stuff probably saved the day. Didn't slow me down and airbag didn't deploy. Thanful for that. Wasn't a safe place to stop so went for another mile. Later I got to thinking what might have happened if I had been in an Elio. I gotta say, I think it would have made for a very bad day. But who knows, if I had been in an Elio, the critter might have just bounded over me.

 

[russell ramsdell]

it was your turn dude ive driven down deer roads for years never got hit -it can happen to anyone, anywhere -what if you were on a motorcycle? -shit in life happens -ps sorry for your loss in the caddy

 

[Aviator]

We should all look at Indy car crashes over the past ten years. Many races had have crashes that look unsurvivable yet drivers walk away?

True fact that simple space saving designs can protect people in crashes.

I guess that all those science experiments we all had as kids to not break the egg with a 20ft fall paid off this time.

 

[russell ramsdell]

my elio will protect me from DANGER !!!,DANGER !! WILL ROBINSON!!!

 

[goofyone]

Sorry about your car but glad you are ok!

The Elio is designed with a full compliment of airbags and multi stage crumple zones so passengers should actually do quite well in an incident like hitting a deer. Hopefully very few people will need to take full advantage of the nicely engineered safety features in this vehicle however it is good to know they are there.

 

[zelio]

Sorry about your car but glad you are ok!

The Elio is designed with a full compliment of airbags and multi stage crumple zones so passengers should actually do quite well in an incident like hitting a deer. Hopefully very few people will need to take full advantage of the nicely engineered safety features in this vehicle however it is good to know they are there.

Thank you for repeating that. I feel the Elio is being built as safe as they can make it but no vehicle, regardless of size is totally safe. I suspect our Elio will actually be safer than many and much safer than many people realize. Z

 

[Ty]

First off very sorry to hear your misfortune Sam. While scary for the deer that had to be a pucker moment and all the fun of insurance and repair etc to come won't be fun. Sorry for you. Regarding the Elio, I do feel based on what they have provided it will be a pretty safe car but much like Tesla, it will take a few "broken eggs" to find out where its real world weakness's might be if any. Hopefully not at a major cost of life. The only concern I have had (Not a real concern) more of an observation, is the fact that the Elio has No form of bumpers at all. My observation concern is actually the Minor fender bender type bumps seen daily from drivers texting, eating, whatever no paying attention. At even 2 miles per hour from the front or the rear my guess is this would (I assume here) be almost catastrophic to the car. (not the passenger). The rear end as an example is nothing more than a cosmetic plastic cover over the rear side mount transaxle and tire. One minor hit and its almost certainly inoperable. Again, this is just me Questioning out loud! Nothing proven or factual! Technically my concern is the same as any motorcycle driver on the road daily. Just thinking (barely) out loud.

You are right about no protection from the rear (there's no transacted there as it's a front wheel drive though). It may actually be cheaper to fix the Elio in those types of accidents even though they'll likely look worse.

 

[goofyone]

If you look closely at the crash simulation above and the photos of the frame below there actually is a metal band which wraps around the rear end and should absorb minor impacts without them causing damage to the rear swingarm or suspension.

 

[CheeseheadEarl]

One thing to keep in mind about car deer crashes - more people die trying to avoid them than actually hitting them. Brake, but don't swerve.

4 legged, corn eatin, beady eyed rats with horns is all they are.

 

[zelio]

Thanks for the photos, you are probably correct. It just looked like the frame rail in the rear was pretty high above the rear tire which I assumed would only protect the occupant and not the rear wheel. Front or rear I guess its just plastic. Could be worse. Just thinking about a few moments in my driving life with the knuckle head behind me decide the light is green before it was, forget to hold the brake, etc. Always agitating but rarely more than a scratch. This might prove different but so long as minor bumps don't cause thousand dollar insurance calls I'm good. Minor observation, nothing more.

Considering the cost of the Elio and their desire to keep expenses down my guess is repairs will cost more in labor than parts. No one wants to be involved in an accident but some are unavoidable and my impression of the Elio is it will be no worse and may even fair better than many other small cars. :-) Z