I hit a black bear today...
 

I know that this is not bike related, even though I am. Anyway...

I was driving my son to the airport this morning and, just before 5am I slammed into an adult black bear. I had no warning until it appeared directly in front of me. In the dark, it is difficult to see black bears. No one got hurt, but the air bag gas kinda hurts the eyes, after a while(I could still drive the car, but pretty sure it will be coming off of the road the minute the insurance adjuster sees the damage.

My reason for posting this little incident is to help others avoid this situation. It happens so fast that there is not a nano-second to think, let alone react.

Needless to say, I feel bad about injuring or killing an animal. Being on a divided highway, I had to loop back a few kilometers to look for the bear. As I was wandering around in the dimness of early sunrise, I suddenly wondered what I intended to do if I did stumble upon an injured black bear.

I called my insurance agent as soon as he was open for business, seeking advice and opening a claim. He was very helpful and suggested that I take pictures of the damage and any evidence suggesting contact with a large animal. No problem there. There is bear poop and bear fur all over the front of the car. And I did take pictures, mostly of bear poop. I am now waiting for the adjuster to call.

Glad you're OK.
Yeah, they are big and solid this time of year. I've seen numerous large wildlife here get hit and run away seemingly unscathed, but also found numerous carcasses within a 100 yards of the road.

That's crazy... Yikes! Glad you're doing alright. Hope the bear will manage! They're tough.

Is it too early to say, "pics or it didn't happen?"

Wow.

Sorry that such a horrible thing had to happen to you. Glad you & your son are OK.

Bet I am the only forum member to share bear poop. There seems to be no blood, just bear feces and some coarse black hair, or fur. Talked to the insurance adjuster, have some direction and tomorrow, after shipping a lovely Marinoni, I will start the fixthecar ball rolling...

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Here Randy, you can use mine
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Wow that would've been scary. But what a great story!

Glad you are OK. Airbags went off? I think they will total your Honda.

I'm sorry about the bear and your car. I'm glad you're otherwise OK. Still, it's exciting to me, as I haven't seen a live wild bear yet. I'm sure I will soon, as we have one who visits our road upstate frequently.

Fortunately not the canister rupturing Takata airbags…
Ouch to all.
That windshield rupture… from the outside or inside?
By the appearance, this car is going to the scrapper.
Airbags run up the repair total very fast.

The great story would be- "I got out of my car- and the bear got up and set down a sturdy card table- he sat down and put his elbow up on the table. I knew what he wanted. A challenge. An arm wrestling challenge. Fortunately he didn't choose bear wrestling- as I'm not a bear- he would have a clear advantage. We both, however, have arms- so we're about even. I pulled up a stool and sat opposite the hairy car-wrecker. I could see that he'd been in his fair share of scrapes with the law... but I knew this was a do or die situation... If ever there was a time to pull myself up from the bootstraps- this was it.

The bear and I locked eyes- the fire of competition burned visibly in his eyes, his pupils constricted, his breath ragged and frenzied. I knew I was in for a real fight..."

About to drive across from TB to wawa and everywhere in between in a couple weeks. They are coming out of hibernation. Thanks for the warning.

Hopefully it was just the civic and not a PX10 or Raben(e)ick.

Glad you are ok! A couple bear sighting in the suburbs of Phx in just the last week. One in Mesa and one in Anthem. Also a buddy scouting for our camp area had one cross the camera a couple weeks ago. We have been really dry this year, probably coming into town for water and food.

I came so close to pranging a black bear one super rainy night. Driving at only 45mph or so, due to the reduced visibility, and this OMG HUGE BLACK BEAR ran out of the blackberries alongside the road and nearly into the front of my Saab. This thing had to be at least 600 lbs, by the size of him. I had no idea they got that big. I've seen a few in the 100-200 lb range; look like they could be a really large black dog, but this one loomed extra large.

Glad at least no humans were harmed here, Randy. Sorry about your bear neighbor. :(

Glad everyone's alright. 🙂 Even the bear, it seems he just got the crap knocked out of him. 😁

Glad you are okay, Randy!

To me, it looks like the bear most likely got away intact, tho it might have a headache in the morning! The car looks like it fared pretty well, too, in my eyes - but I'm not an insurance adjuster, so...

Interesting to note that airbag deployment is a major factor in whether or not a car is totaled; never heard that claim before today.

DD

Wow. That sucks but I'm glad to hear you are OK too.

I had a bear vs. Honda incident a couple years ago, but it resulted in much less damage. Bear decided to have a look in my car while I was camping. Heard someone opening a car door late at night. Thought my friends had finally showed up, but I looked over and it was my car door open and a bear running away. Glad I left it unlocked. Amazing dexterity. Fortunately food and what not was in a bear locker. Nothing interesting inside. I left the paw print on the door for several months.

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Glad you are OK.
 

When I adjusted cars, I saw a few. Generally due to the speed and heavy dark bear (little reaction time), the impacts almost always totaled the car. SRS deployment can add $1500-$3000 to the repair bill, easily.

It really is coarse fur, isn't it? I also had to total cars where bears tried to get into food at campgrounds, ripping cars up in the process.

Very glad you are OK. I have also handled fatalities from these encounters, even with deer.

The thing that is sticking in my mind is the way the bear appeared in front of me. I use the word "appeared" because that is what happened.

I was very aware of keeping a close eye on the road and then the bear was there, I am guessing about five feet dead center in the front of the car. The bear appeared to be surrounded by a halo, which would be the car lights bouncing off of the creature. The bear looked right at me for the briefest of instances. Then, kapow!

Later, during the day as I ponder the happening over and over, word came to me, regarding the way the bear appeared and that word is surrealistic. The whole instant, and all of the above visual information was gathered in less than a blink of an eye, was almost magical in a surrealistic sense - like a dream. The image is still hard printed in my foremost mind. Can't shake it and, for what it is worth, fear never did participate in the event. Well, perhaps for a moment when I was a couple of hundred feet from the car, in the gloom of darkness, looking for the injured animal. Perhaps not the best idea I have had since my return to Canada, this year.

When talking with the insurance representative, he said I was lucky that the event happened so quickly. More often than not, a driver will have time to swerve, in an attempt to avoid a collision. It is the swerve that can cause the most damage and/or harm to the vehicle occupants(unless the car hits a moose - all bets are off then).

Glad you're okay, Randy. From my experience with black bears, their fur doesn't reflect light well at all. Unless you're seeing them face-on, and seeing the reflection of the nose or grey muzzle or eyes, they're fairly invisible at night. I had to look it up as to why, "With the right structure, fur and feathers can generate efficient thermal insulation in the far infrared range while also scattering visible light to produce a white appearance in the visible wavelength range." That halo you saw was probably just this, the light-scattering property of the hair. Well, unless it was a spirit-bear, then I can't help you.

I was camping in the Smoky Mountains just off the Appalachian trail and found a nice camp spot maybe 50 feet off the side trail. I'd seen some bear scat and a few dig-spots around a number of trees on my way up the trail, and knew I'd be near a black bear, but they generally want to stay away from people. The first night I was woken up around 3 am by some noises, and poked my flashlight out the tent, and sure enough, right on the trail 50 feet from me was a large male black bear. About all I could see was the glow of his eyes, and his muzzle. He looked at the light, then just ambled off down the trail. Same thing the next night. Day 3, a couple of hikers came along and asked if it was okay to set up near me, and since it was a well-designated remote camp, I said sure. They started setting up their tent, right on the trail. I told them about the bear. They said, "Ah, we've seen plenty of scat, we'll be alright. We've been on the trail for a week, do this every year." "Okaaayyy......" I thought. 3am, I'm woken up by a bunch of screaming and thrashing and thumping sounds, then this horrible repeating honking-like sound, and more high-pitched yelling, and it sounds like a herd of buffalo just ran past my tent. Ended up that the bear was doing most of the screaming, the honking part, anyway. My flashlight sees two near-naked guys with their sleeping bags still around their ankles and a flattened tent flopped upside down somewhere nearby. We all drank coffee until daylight (us guys, not the bear), and then they left rather quickly.

Met a few while out & about. Since they banned hound hunting, their #s seem to be increasing.

Once I was driving an old truck down a logging road after fishing when one burst out of the brush about 30 feet in front of me. Turned right and took off straight down the road.

I was only doing 15 or 20 mph and instead of diving back into the woods, mr. bear ran straight on, looking over his shoulder from time to time. I dropped back a bit, waiting for him to get off the road. This went on for about a mile and he got up to 35mph briefly. Eventually, I dropped way back & he finally turned off into the woods.

For years, I thought 35 mph was bear top speed, but I read they can do 45 mph. Don

This would make a good Allstate commercial because they've seen a thing or two

In southern California it is mostly deer hits, with similar outcomes. Some of our newer roads have culverts to permit/encourage wildlife to cross under the road, but I do not know how effective this has been.

Airbag deployment is indeed generally an indicator for totalling any car that is more than a few years old. Glad the car did its job of protecting the occupants -- this is one of the beauties of modern automotive engineering.

Same thing here in Oregon, its the deer you see getting hit than anything else