VIDEO: Auto Body Shops Are Seeing An Increase In Business Due To Deer Collisions

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)-We’re in the heart of deer season here in the Magnolia State.

Hunters are hunting and we’re seeing more and more car crashes that involve deer.

Broken head lights, missing doors, and a missing bumper, all of these damages can be caused when a vehicle collides with a deer.

“Deer are unpredictable they can hit the front bumper and knock out a headlight, a grill, or they can start rolling down the side of the vehicle and deploy airbags, fenders, doors,” said Tom Cooper, co-owner of Bob’s Paint and Body. “They can actually take a vehicle and actually do so much damage that it becomes non-repairable where it’s a total loss.”

Cooper said as of late, they’ve seen a heavy influx of cars involved in deer collisions..

“For the month of December it was probably at least 40 to 50 claims that we handled,” he recalled.

When these cars come in, the time table varies on when the driver will be able to get them back.

“A lot of times if the vehicle is damaged where it’s non-drivable, it actually takes about a four to five day process to get the estimate parts and get everything ordered for that.” Cooper explained. Depending on the extent of damage, the average repair on a vehicle like that is probably five to seven working days. Now if it’s extensive, it can be two weeks plus on the repair process.”

As a result, having to repair so many damaged vehicles results in overload for the mechanics.

“When you get so much scheduled work on top of scheduled work, it puts the pressure on trying to keep the job on track, and with that the guy’s work overtime, they stay late at night, come in on the weekends,” he said.

And sometimes that can be a lot to bear.

“It’s a good bad problem,” said Cooper. “We got plenty of work it’s just making sure we make the customer happy and get their vehicle back to them as soon as possible.”

Categories: Local News

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