Highway accident: Dog jumps in front of my Kia Seltos

The 150 km drive back to Bangalore was uneventful and the car drove as if nothing happened.

BHPian ashis89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

An insurance claim and a key fob scare

What started off as a Sunday drive for a sneak peak at Mallalli Falls, ended up with an unscheduled visit to the service centre.

It was just the two of us. Started off leisurely with the plan to reach Mallalli Falls, spend some time, and then drive back. After a sumptuous breakfast at Dhruvathare, we resumed our journey. About 20 kms later, tragedy struck - a dog jumped onto the road and got hit.

Started off like this

I went through the dashcam footage multiple times before I figured out what went wrong. A white dog was standing on a white divider and barking at dogs on the other side of the road. It was standing at such an angle that it gelled with the white pillar behind it. After their bark fight was over, the dog decided to retreat and jog across the road (right to left). Neither the dog saw me coming nor could I see it on the divider until it was too late. I tried to avoid but the dog still hit one end of the front bumper and got deflected onto a grass patch beside the road. From the look of it, it ran off from there as I could find it after I stopped. Hopefully, it wasn't a major injury, if at all. We were unscathed, Coyote wasn't.

The end result is a hit to the front left side and a cracked bumper

Looked some more and found that the wheel well cladding was partly broken and had fallen off. The side trim had broken some clips and the fog lamp clamps were partly off. Checked the radiator and intercooler but they seemed unaffected. No leaking liquids, only the wheel cladding was rubbing against the wheel. Thought for a while if we should continue to Mallalli but then decided against it.

Notice the threads

The fog lamp mount and connectors are damage

Odo

Called Gowtham, the service Manager at Epitome Kia to check if they are open on Sunday. The first thing he did was check for our well-being after the accident. Then he checked where I was since he was on a personal trip on the Hassan highway itself and offered to return to help us. I told him there were no liquid leaks or mechanical damage so the car was driveable. So he suggested driving back slowly and dropping the car at the service centre and he could take care of the repairs the next day.

I was afraid the loose pieces like side trim and cladding with make a racket or fly off when I started driving. I wanted to tie them but wasn't carrying any rope. Looked into my boot and pulled a few strands off the old Josapu duster, tied them together, and made small rope pieces. Then tied off the loose ends. A good Samaritan who was travelling with his family, saw me and my wife standing beside a car with popped bonnet and immediately stopped. He suggested I take it to a roadside garage who can fit a couple of screws to the broken pieces and then we can continue to Mallalli. While it made sense, we chose to return.

From the rear, there was no sign of any accident

The 150 km drive back to Bangalore was uneventful and the car drove as if nothing happened. Went to Epitome and they were okay to accept the car. But I had to come back on Monday when the Insurance team would be present (only skeletal staff on Sundays) to start the claim process. Since the car was driveable, we took it back. To change the mood of the bad day we were having, I booked tickets for Deadpool & Wolverine (The English Movies Thread (No Spoilers Please)) on the spot and that movie helped end our day on a much better note.

This was my first experience claiming car insurance. Drove over on Monday morning, carrying my DL, RC, PAN, and Insurance policy as instructed. Gowtham was there too and took a look at the vehicle. A young chap named Anoy was there to help me with the insurance process and body shop repair. He clicked the pictures of the damage and informed me that the clips of the headlight were broken too. I asked him to repair the dent on the door (out of my pocket) which I had been delaying all this time. I filled out the form, submitted copies of the documents, and was out in less than 30 mins. Within an hour, a WA group was formed by him including the service team. Promised delivery was in 7 days which was quicker than I expected.

At the time of submitting for repair

Clips on the headlamps are gone with the bumper

Over the next 3 days, I kept getting regular updates, calls, and estimates from Anoy. On Thursday, I got a call from Anoy that the car is ready but they are awaiting the liability settlement from Tata AIG. On Friday evening, they received the final approval and I collected the vehicle on Saturday morning. Five-day turnaround time was seriously impressive! He had even swapped over the HID bulb onto the new projector and handed over the halogen bulb which came with the new set.

The car ready for delivery, with all the parts that were replace

Paid 12.5k of my own, for the door repair/repaint, compulsory deductible, and a set of wipers, while insurance paid 38k for all the accident-related damages.

The quality of work is good. The paint match on the door is almost perfect to the untrained eye. Not bad for a 5-year-old car. A new bumper has reset the list of scrapes and scratches that the old one had gathered all these years.

A few things that I learned from the repair experience:

• The DRL section and the projector headlamp are a single unit. All this time, I thought them to be separate. They cost 17k each (expensive if paying out of pocket).
• Bumper comprises small pieces which are available as separate SKUs. Six such pieces were replaced in my car (total worth 6.6k) and the rest of the pieces were retained as they were not damaged.
• The halogen projectors are 3.6k/piece. In comparison, the LED fog lamps on our Brezza cost 3k/unit.
• The plastic trims can be replaced individually. Cost 500-1000 per piece and are fixed with clips.
• The old parts are broken up and documented before insurance clears the bill for the service centre.
• Multiple approvals and clearances from the insurer can delay the repair work.
• Having insurance from a company that has cashless tie-ups, makes the repair process easy (have had terrible experiences with non-cashless medical insurance claims).

Asked them to replace the front wipers as well. Looking at the Wiper Blade thread, I couldn't arrive at unanimous positive feedback for any particular brand of aftermarket wipers so I stuck to OE again.

I did notice a small tear on the passenger seat base but can't be sure if it happened while the car was at the workshop. Need to pay a visit to Shiva's shop.

Key fob scare

On the day of the accident itself, I noticed a key low battery warning on the MID. It came on only once and never later in the day. I had forgotten about it. When I received the vehicle on Saturday at Epitome, they mentioned about the key not getting detected because of the low battery. The access button was not working and I had to start the car by pressing the Start Stop button with the fob.

But I could lock-unlock the car with the fob. I had a bunch of Duracell CR2032 batteries at home so I took the car and went back home.

Changed the battery and tried but the car still wouldn't detect the fob. Took my spare key and even that wasn't detected. So it wasn't a key or battery problem. So it would have something to do with the car detecting the key. Called up Epitome and drove back to them. Even though it was 5:30 PM, they accepted my car and first, tried replacing the battery with the KIA OE one. That didn't work and put back my Duracell into the fob.

Next, they suspected the key might have been 'forgotten' by the car. It can occur if one is driving for a long time with a fob with a weak/dead battery and the car is not getting a signal. So they tried reprogramming the key and that did the trick. In and out in 15 minutes flat.

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