An alert on the marquee outside Collision Experts body shop in Woodlawn simply states, "Oh Deer." About one-fifth of the work at the shop this fall was caused by deer collisions, an employee said, but she had no other information about the problem. Seeking more inside on the matter, I called Ralph Caprara, owner of A.C. Body Works in Rotterdam. "Some years I've had to repair a lot of deer-damaged vehicles, but not this past year," Caprara said.
He said most of the deer hits are in the spring and fall, but he cautioned that over the years the problem nets him work all winter long. He said once a hit deer wound up inside the vehicle resulting in an injured driver.
"Besides hitting them head-on, sometimes damage is caused by deer running into the side of a vehicle," Caprara said. "Deer accidents are often like hitting a tree. They can cause damage in the thousands of dollars and injury, too."
As an aside, he mentioned cellphones as a major collision cause. "I've had drivers admit they were on the phone when they rear-ended someone or drove off the road."
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