actorcomponent detect collision?

I am wondering if you could ask a staticmeshcomponent to run the notifycollision function on the actor that owns it, or at least be able to call a function of the owner actor.

I broke down my vehicle into different static meshes and would like to be able to detect the collision of that component in order to break it off or do some other function.

Maybe a better way would be to create another actor and attach it to the vehicle actor?

Thanks in advance for any input.