[stephd203]

Well, LAST night (July 11, 2025) I get a call from my son. (I really didn't know which category to choose to put this in). He is just 17, has his license for 3 months, and thinks he knows everything.
He drove my car, the silver 06 325xi, into a cornfield in avoiding a collision with a motorcyclist. It was around 7pm. (Not to mention he was grounded from driving the car for anything but work...)
He and his passenger are okay. Then he hands the phone over to a deputy sheriff. It was explained to me that he may have been doing "triple digits." Here in OHIO most cornfields are above 5' high now and the ground is hard. The deputy said the car looks okay, with some pieces that came off.
He was investigating things before he decided on which direction to take with my boy.
I'm leaving some details out, but feel free to ask anything...no airbags were deployed and he drove the car home.
My husband and I waited for him to come home. Our plan was to drive back out there in my other 06 BMW and take a look at the scene. He rode with us. The friend whose younger sister was in the car, said that it wasn't that bad but that the other deputy was mean and harsh to her.
Recording the whole drive to that cornfield, which he couldn't remember where it was at first, we noticed he was in shock a little. Then we received a call from the original deputy to meet with him. We said we were out there looking for the scene. He told us the address and we would meet up afterwards.
Upon arrival to the scene, we sat in a long driveway to a house with a young man playing basketball. He came to talk to us and handed us some undercarrage protective parts that were left behind. He said they didn't care about the corn damage.

My kid had avoided a potential head on accident with a motorcyclist while trying to pass another vehicle in front of him. He went left of center towards the oncoming lane's berm. Then he went airborn over the 4 ft ditch, scraping the right rocker panel area, landing on the well manicured lawn. He then continued for roughtly 50 yards through the adjacent cornfield until he stopped!
He claims the brakes didn't do anything, and it seemed that the car just slid to a stop. I asked him if he felt or heard feedback from the pedal, to which he replied with yes. So I'm guessing the ABS kicked in but he probably lost footing on it at some point and had to reapply brakes. He also said that he had punched the wrong pedal before finding the brake. Hmmm...
We picked up some more small pieces of plastic. Amongst the items that the resident handed us, was the actual lens cover to the right rear lights. They were amazingly all in one piece. The front undercarriage driver's side panel and brake airduct were also semi-okay!

My main question is--what should we look at or suspect might be damaged?

So far, I jacked the car up, as I also needed to change the oil, and saw pieces of grass and possible cornshucks tucked around the aluminum skid plate. Now that it's light, I'm getting under the car to inspect more. My kid said no lights came on in the dash...we'll see. I have Inpa and ISTA.
We later met up with the deputy, who cited my boy for "failure to control," which I fully support, as he has to be in court for it.

He said that upon investigation, there were no skidmarks on the road, no tire depressions in the grass and cornfield entry, and since he didn't go into the ditch, but instead went airborne, he had to have been going over 70 mph, as the boy stated.
Someone had called 911 on them. My boy had backed the car out of the field and onto the driveway, where the motorcyclist had stopped to talk to him, glad that the decision was made to run off road!
They departed but he stopped in two other driveways to check the car. Meanwhile the deputy who was enroute passed by them at the second driveway they stopped at, knew it was the car, and turned around to reach them. He said that they were gone from the driveway. (And that as he passed them, the boy had his phone up outside of the car like he was taking pictures.)
The deputy said that our boy had blown out of there, and he had to do 90 until he finally caught up to the car. And at first, my boy did not stop or pull over until the deputy turned his overheads on. The deputy said that my son had his phone in his hand and was posting a picture of himself on snapchat.
After I inspect, change the oil, and take pictures, I will glue the lens back on the headlight with the headlight off. I've got to get crackin' and get to work before it rains here. If I have any good pictures, I will post them too. And this car has 276,000 miles on it, and can still do 100mph fine.

[stephd203]

UPDATE:

I knew it was out of alignment, but LORD, I didn't expect them to tell me the upper left strut was bent!!