Well, I've been away from here for a while. To be honest, I was just busy enjoying my hybrid cars, and also found I was taking too much time from work to schmooze on the forums and obsess about my mileage.

But I'm back briefly to talk about two issues (one here, one somewhere else): my recent crash and an interesting experience with the Prius in the snow. Here, the crash:

On 11/9 I was traveling back from NYC at night, and I hit a deer while going about 68 mph on a highway just south of Binghamton. At that speed, I just about saw the deer in my highbeams and boom! I'd hit it. I don't even recall whether I had time to get my foot to the brake or to try to swerve. I hit the good-sized doe with the right front of the car, killing her instantly and tossing her a ways off the side of the road. Of course my first thought was, "OH NO! MY WONDERFUL CAR!!! Aaaaaarrrgh!!" (My second thought was, how the HECK am I going to get home, 50 miles away, at 11:30 at night? But I did solve that one, with the help of a friend.)

The good news abounds, however. I was unhurt. The airbags did not deploy. After pulling off the side of the road and turning off the car to recover from the shock, I tried to start it up again and it DID start (though the engine light was on). I got out and inspected the car. The right front area, back to the windshield/front of passenger door, was demolished. (I have a photo on my phone, I'll try to get it off and post it here if it comes out OK. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me.) But the passenger compartment was essentially untouched. The car handled the crash in what I consider to be a very safe way. And I really didn't even feel like I'd been in a crash, I had absolutely NO physical effects at all. Of course, I didn't think I should drive it - the fender was almost touching the front tire, I figured the radiator had been ruined and I didn't know what else. So I had it towed to the local Toyota dealer for repair.

The total cost of the damage was initially over $6,000. They later discovered that the very bottom right (passenger) corner of the windshield was cracked, so the windshield had to be replaced. That brought the total damage over $7,000. But hitting a deer is considered an "act of god" covered by comprehensive, not collision - so in my case my $250 comprehensive deductible (not the higher $500 collision deductible) was all I had to pay, and it was not a 'chargeable accident' for insurance purposes.

The car seems to be back to normal after the repairs; the only thing I've noticed is that the passenger door hinge is not tightly bolted on. I will fix that myself.

I would certainly hope that no one out there has to suffer from such a horrendous event, but if you have a Prius, at least you can feel good knowing that it will take such an impact with little harm to you or your passengers.

I'll try to get that picture up this weekend if I can.