When Deer Are Busy, So Are They

PECONIC

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IF every good business has a niche, then Ted’s Auto Body’s is deer hits.

This time of year, Ted’s, a busy repair shop here in the middle of the North Fork, gets a steady stream of cars wobbling in with furry dents. It is deer-mating season, and the hyperactive animals tend to run into traffic, resulting in what locals call deer hits.

“October through December, we’re very busy with deer damage,” said Frank Klos, 68, of New Suffolk, who with his brother, Bob, owns Ted’s, the shop opened by their father 60 years ago. “The bucks are rutting and chasing the females around, and you have deer running out into the road left and right.”

“I do my share,” he said in the shop on Monday. “We’re usually working on five or six cars at a time with deer damage. I gave five estimates already this morning on cars brought in with deer hits.”

Four were being repaired at the moment. Mechanics were replacing a windshield and repainting a white 2000 Jeep that a Greenport man drove into a deer while he was returning from work.

“This guy got away cheaply — basically a windshield and repair of the roof that cost about ,000,” Mr. Klos said. “The deer must have jumped, because you can see it missed the grill and hood completely and went right into the windshield. He didn’t go through it because they use safety glass now, but a deer will often go right through, if you’re going fast enough.”

Nearby was a Mattituck family’s 2003 Dodge Suburban whose front end was a mess, a ,200 repair.

“This guy just hit the deer head-on,” Mr. Klos said. “The hood’s intact, but the radiator, cooling fan, grill, headlights all have to be replaced.”

A crash with a deer, he said, often drives the radiator back into the engine, and even a light smack can ruin the delicate plastic grills, bumpers and front-end accessories of today’s cars.

Next to the Suburban was a Mattituck man’s 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee, with ,500 worth of damage to the grill, bumper and other parts.

The repairmen were eating their lunch and chatting casually about how the cars often come in a mess of blood and guts and glass and hair, and how the cars must be power-washed first. Often, there are pieces of the animal still in the car — sometimes the whole deer.

The average repair from a deer hit costs ,000, Mr. Klos said, although many cost upward of ,000, and one out of 10 cars is damaged beyond affordable repair.

“If the air bags deploy, then it’s usually too expensive to repair,” said Mr. Klos, who deals with repairs from about 300 deer hits each mating season. “We only get an hour for labor, and we don’t make money on the parts. We’re making a living here, not a killing.”

Many locals feel that hitting a deer is inevitable and opt for comprehensive car insurance policies, he said, which generally cover repairs from deer accidents.

“Some insurance adjusters want to see the deer hair,” Mr. Klos said. “They want to see where the deer hit and take pictures of the hair.”

But while none of the drivers whose cars was repaired on this day were seriously injured, the men said the crashes are really no laughing matter, for either the deer or drivers. There was the 62-year-old man riding his motorcycle who was killed after striking a deer on Route 48 in Southold recently, and five teenagers were injured last month after their car overturned after the driver apparently swerved to avoid a deer.

“Some of the deer around here are close to 200 pounds, and they can do a lot of damage if you hit them at 60 miles an hour,” said Mr. Klos, who said he had hit three or four deer himself. “You’re better off hitting the deer than trying to avoid it, because if you swerve, you’re likely to hit something else that’s a lot more solid. The slower you go, the safer you are.”

Most deer-car accidents happen at dawn or dusk, when deer are most active. Deer whistles, which some drivers install on their car to warn deer, do not seem to work, he said, while standing in the front of the shop as customer after customer came through and stopped to trade deer-hit stories.

One man said he worked at the Animal Disease Center on Plum Island and had hit several deer on the early morning drive out to the ferry. Another man said a deer ran through his yard and into his Volvo parked in the driveway, causing ,000 worth of damage.

Mr. Klos recalled the deer that jumped completely over one driver’s car: “The only damage was the hoof marks scraping along the roof.”

Mr. Klos added, “We had a guy who got ,500 worth of damage just from hitting a raccoon.”

E-mail: theisland@nytimes.com

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