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Car-Deer accidents up, delaying repairs

Oregon joins states where roadkill can be harvested for food
Posted at 5:53 PM, Dec 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-11 07:28:42-05

LANSING, Mich. — The cost of fixing your car after hitting a deer might not be the worst part about it.

Car and deer accidents are higher than normal. They're causing delays in repairs, with shops taking five weeks to repair cars in some cases.There are long wait times to get the repairs done right now.

A car shop in Mason is running almost two weeks behind schedule.

"Sitting here doesn't do us any good, we want to get it back to you not only so that we can get paid, but we can move on to the next one and keep that cycle going," said Jeff Kreisler, President of Mason Auto Works.

This time of the year Mason Auto Body takes anywhere from two to three weeks to repair cars.

"Right now we're out to about 4-5 weeks,” said Kreisler.

Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wrigglesworth says his deputies alone have responded to over 200 car-deer accidents since the beginning of October.

"It's about 2.5 a day, just in the out-county basically, and most of them are on the secondary roads,” he said.

Because of these crashes Mason Auto Body is taking in more cars than they can fix.

What’s more, Kreisler says they're still feeling the effects from the General Motors strike.

"We've had vehicles here for over a month waiting for some GM parts to get here," he said.

That's delaying repairs even more – so much so that they’re running out of space in their lot.

"If a tow truck needs to come and drop a car off, it can take two to three people to move all the cars needed to get access to a parking spot. It does pull from other areas that does tend to slow down and halts that rolling wheel for the repair side of things," Kreisler said.

While there is a lot of money lost for deer accident repairs, Wrigglesworth says it's better than the alternative.

"We'd much rather take a call about an accident where no one was injured than one where you miss the deer but now you're injured because you hit another car, another tree or rolled your car in a ditch. I can replace my car, but I can't replace my life. Just hit the deer.”

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