Hit debris on the highway - bumper messed up

[MomoM3]

I'm so upset. I'm working in Morristown, NJ for the next 3 days so I'm driving on Rt 78 East this morning and all of a sudden what appeared to be a small car window flew in the air a few cars in front of me. The debris flew over the SUV in front of me and was heading right towards my windshield. I had no time to react to spare my car. I had a concrete divider to my left and cars to my right while doing about 60-65mph. Luckily, the debris headed straight down and instead of going through my windshield, hit the lower lip of my car and continued to the left causing broken glass to go everywhere. I had to continue going about 1/4 mile to safely pull over.

I get out and see the damage and was so upset. A DOT truck pulled over and I told him I hit debris. He said he'd radio it in to the state police and go look for what I hit. This young state trooper lady rolled up, told her what happened, and wrote the report up. The DOT guy came back a few mins later to tell us he found nothing.

I still have temporary registration tags and temporary insurance docs for god sakes!






The bottom lip is creased in, so I'm assuming this can't be fixed & the bumper needs to be replaced?


Is the bumper supposed to fold over the headlamps like this?





Since I hit debris, would this be considered a collision or comprehensive claim if I went through my insurance company?

The only bright side is if I get a new bumper, I won't have front plate drill holes....

This was completely unavoidable... My car is like 5 weeks old!!!!!!

[chez80]

man i feel for you...... what were the conditions when this happened.... did they fall off a truck?

[MomoM3]

I was in a construction zone right before it happened. Clear/sunny weather this morning. Rush hour traffic, but traffic was flowing at a little under speed limit. I was in the 1st (left) lane when it happened. May have fallen off of a junkyard-bound truck, but it all happened so fast, I don't know what preceeded the flying window...

Oh & I forgot to mention - after I left the scene after the state trooper wrote her report, there was a massive steering shimmy at 40-60mph. Never had the chance to go faster in the morning traffic. Shimmy went away after 10 mins of driving. When I left my job site in the afternoon, I felt a slight shimmy at 40-60 for about 5 mins but went away/decreased after that.

What would that be? I got REALLY worried when my steering was shimmying when I left the accident site in the morning, but it went away... Weird, but I'd still want to check out the suspension.

[AtoB]

horrible! sorry to see/hear it.... i feel your pain
i had a hub cap fly off a 18-wheeler on the highway the other week and dent and crack the paint on my bumper... it sucks.

[MomoM3]

is this considered collision or comprehensive in terms of insurance coverage?

if it's considered collision, I may have to pay for this on my own

EDIT: Comprehensive...

[GSXRM3]

As a claims adjuster, generally speaking if you hit debris in the road that is stationary or moving across the ground when you hit it would be collision. If the stuff is flying through the air and hits your car its going to be comprehensive. Keep in ming collision claims can be filed as at fault or not at fault depending on your carrier while comp is always going to be considered non fault.
Sorry to hear about your car

[Zoli007]

Sucks to hear and see.... BUt on the bright side, perfect excuse to get the Euro bumper now.

[Davinhci]

sux man

[MomoM3]

Originally Posted by GSXRM3

As a claims adjuster, generally speaking if you hit debris in the road that is stationary or moving across the ground when you hit it would be collision. If the stuff is flying through the air and hits your car its going to be comprehensive. Keep in ming collision claims can be filed as at fault or not at fault depending on your carrier while comp is always going to be considered non fault.
Sorry to hear about your car

Yep - fortunately, my ins co considered the flying debris off the truck comprehensive. Just saves me money, but I still got a jacked up car

I need to find a good shop now. I went to a horrible body shop when someone damaged my keyhole trying to break into the e46 m3. Had overspray and paint run on the door handle...

[positiveions]

ouch. sucks man. But good think u r ok. Well, I can answer your question about the insurance claim. What is the deductible vs the cost of repairing the bumper? Is it worth the claim? That is what you need to find out. Your insurance "might" (but to me that is all BS) go up, but then again it might not. I don't think it will.
Good luck

[MomoM3]

Originally Posted by Zoli007

Sucks to hear and see.... BUt on the bright side, perfect excuse to get the Euro bumper now.

I wonder if I could order the euro bumper instead of the US bumper when they order my parts...

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175883

If I could get a Euro bumper with front PDC, would the front PDC display activate in iDrive? Hmm...

[MTROIS]

So sorry to read about your incident!! Call your insurance and take care of this ASAP. Good luck.

[masmole]

Damn that sucks. Sorry for your misfortune. After you get it fixed up, perhaps you should consider a clear bra at least for the more susceptible bumper area if you don't want to do the hood. I've hit many debris at highway speeds on past cars and for the most part, the clear bra was strong enough to prevent any damage. It's really quite amazing what a specialized clear film can do to increase surface strength in such thin layers. The stuff really works. I've hit pieces of wood, gravel, rocks, rubber chunks, and various other debris and the only item that ever did any damage through the clear bra was a huge whole piece of tire tread that peeled off from a tire body and was sitting in the middle of the highway, which I hit square on at about 80mph. It not only tore through the clear bra but also through the bumper. From your pics, I believe a clear bra would've considerably prevented most if not all damage in your situation.

[Krueger///M3]

Originally Posted by masmole

Damn that sucks. Sorry for your misfortune. After you get it fixed up, perhaps you should consider a clear bra at least for the more susceptible bumper area if you don't want to do the hood. I've hit many debris at highway speeds on past cars and for the most part, the clear bra was strong enough to prevent any damage. It's really quite amazing what a specialized clear film can do to increase surface strength in such thin layers. The stuff really works. I've hit pieces of wood, gravel, rocks, rubber chunks, and various other debris and the only item that ever did any damage through the clear bra was a huge whole piece of tire tread that peeled off from a tire body and was sitting in the middle of the highway, which I hit square on at about 80mph. It not only tore through the clear bra but also through the bumper. From your pics, I believe a clear bra would've considerably prevented most if not all damage in your situation.

Exactly what happened to me.

[414AW]

Could of been worse. Look on the bright side at least it wasn't a pane of glass that was for a building and slashed thru your hood and what not. At least its minor...nothing too serious.

[kbk_75]

That really sucks, but I also think you were quite fortunate that the damage was not worse! The bumper does cover that corner edge of the head-lamp, so don't worry about that.

[Big Windy]

Originally Posted by MosesDKE

I wonder if I could order the euro bumper instead of the US bumper when they order my parts...

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175883

If I could get a Euro bumper with front PDC, would the front PDC display activate in iDrive? Hmm...

i am not sure you could code your iDrive for front PDC, but I am not certain. I would like to know the answer to this as well.

Honestly, the damage doesn't look that bad. I think that you could have the bumper fixed at a shop for less than 1,000. But maybe I can't tell exactly from the pics.

[montreal red]

you probably wont need a new bumper to get it fixed... i think this would still be considered a collision if you go through insurance since you were behind the wheel when it happened and you were driving even though its not your fault. bring it to a paint shop that you trust and i am pretty sure they can make it look 99% new...oh and the bumper looks normal... thats how it is from the factory

[lizak187]

best of luck ...

[adamr]

Originally Posted by Zoli007

Sucks to hear and see.... BUt on the bright side, perfect excuse to get the Euro bumper now.

+2 get it replaced feel your pain ...

[monsta]

wow sorry to read about this...definitely get it fixed fast....I had a similar situation one time but w/ a milk crate bouncing around from car to car on the Cross Bronx Expressway I had no escape hit it head on broke my lower front lip but luckily it was back when I had my old '92 Camery I was still pissed though

[torredresen]

Auwch, feel sorry for ya man!!