Body Shops Boom in Winter Months

As cars slid out on slippery streets in this month's ice storm, many businesses saw a decline in sales and customer activity. But even with all the warnings about treacherous roads and unsafe driving conditions, a great many San Angeloans took to the streets anyway, and now their cars—or rather their insurance companies—are paying the price.

“[I’ve seen] like a 50 percent increase,” said Ricky Villarreal, owner of San Angelo Insurance Company in reference to business since the last ice storm, “the day of, the after and still.”

State Farm Agent Tony Villarreal agrees. “This particular one (ice storm), we’ve had a bit more (claims), and I don’t think people were prepared and expecting it. We saw 15-20 percent more claims than we usually see,” Villareal explained.

When bad weather hits, State Farm evaluates the influx in claims in different areas and assesses risk. Everything from the metroplex to San Angelo was considered a catastrophe after this assessment, Villarreal said.

And with so many accidents—from minor fender benders to more serious crashes—body shops around town are filling up fast. Some are even so busy that they’ve hardly the time to answer the phone

“[This ice storm has resulted in] probably for us about a 20 percent increase,” said Richard Rivas, owner of Rivas Paint and Body. “When it gets cold, the deer are out running, and the people have accidents.”

Ice and deer seem to be special factors in San Angelo, contributing to a high amount of work the body shops see this time of year. And while many a local driver has proven that west Texans don’t do well on that cold, frozen stuff, local body shops and insurance agents say that other forms of precipitation don’t really affect their business much.

“Rain doesn’t really do that, air doesn’t really do that,” said Ricky Villareal. “Every time you get in your car is a risk, then with the icy weather out you just multiply that risk.” 

Chad Beck, Chief Estimator at Calvert Collision, says that after an ice storm a large number of the vehicles are totaled, so they don’t see as much of a spike in business as some of the others have reported. He does, however, add that deer are a big problem, thus why this time of year is particularly precarious for drivers.

“The level at which people can’t drive, so to speak, doesn’t change month to month,” Beck says. “When you add any additional commercial traffic, then you add oil field traffic, and then you add the deer, you go from being pretty stable to seeing an increase.”

All those contacted were in agreement that the weather has punched up their business, however many are seeing different things. Richard Rivas says his shop is dealing mostly with front end and back end work from people not being able to stop on time, and Beck says a lot of his clients have damage on the sides of their vehicles where they’ve slid into guardrails. The others mention largely fender benders.

However, with all the differences in the types of bodywork done, there is one constant: “We don’t really see a whole lot of people sliding out and running into each other, it’s mostly stationary objects,” said Beck. The response is the same across the board.

Tony Villarreal adds, “We stress on people to make sure they’re wearing their seatbelts. Speed has a lot to do with it. A lot of these could be avoided.”