Sometimes it's just the corner fender and panel that takes the hit, a fairly straightforward repair. It all depends on how fast the vehicle is moving and where on the vehicle the collision occurs. Lillich and Heideman said there's no single kind of car that survives a deer hit better than the rest. They're often hit trying to cross highways, the fawns not recognizing that speeding cars pose a threat. Lillich said car-deer collisions tend to taper off by the end of December but pick up again in the spring after does have babies and the mothers and their young begin to move about. 12 in Missouri, and hunters had already killed 122,818 deer by midday Wednesday. We're pretty busy."įirearms deer season began Nov. "On average, we're seeing one or two car-deer collision repairs come in per day right now. "After hunting season starts, that also gets them moving," he said. And if your air bags go off, the cost goes up a lot to fix it."Īt Dodson-Williams Auto Body repair shop in Springfield, shop manager David Heideman said it's not just deer rutting season that triggers roadway collisions. "But we've got a (GMC) Terrain in the shop right now with $16,000 in damage from a deer hit. "Typically, unless you just bump them at low speed, if you're going 30 to 50 mph and hit a deer you're looking at a $2,000 repair," Lillich said. The deer wander through yards and city streets and busy highways, often with disastrous results for both the deer and cars that hit them. Missouri's whitetail deer are in the middle of rutting season, when bucks blindly chase does in an attempt to mate with them. And one in every 117 Missouri drivers is likely to hit a deer this year. Missouri averages thousands of injuries and three deaths per year. According to one report, the average repair bill is $3,995. Just within Springfield city limits, the public works department recorded 19 deer collisions in 2015 that damaged vehicles. According to the city, vehicles have hit seven deer so far in Springfield this year. "It doesn't matter where you live - in the country or in the city - we still see lots of damage from collisions with deer." "It started a month ago, and we've already written over 70 repair estimates for deer hits," said Nate Lillich, owner and vice president at Hammer's Autoworks, Inc., in Springfield. Many Springfield auto body shops are inundated with repair work due to the annual fall influx of collisions between cars and deer. The vehicles start arriving this time of year with smashed grilles, broken headlights, dented body panels and shattered windshields. Watch Video: Crunch time for car repair shops
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