Deer are out and about, and causing problems for drivers. Body shop manager for Hallman Champion Collision Rich Shick said it's around this time of year, as it starts to get dark earlier, they see more cars damaged from deer collisions.  

“We've seen a major uptick in the last few weeks with the deer . . everything going on, and there's a lot more deer getting hit by cars than there have been in the last few years,” Shick said.

Back in September, thousands of auto workers went on strike, and when they were on the picket line, auto parts weren't being made.   

“This year's been a little tougher with the strike because it's harder to get the big three manufacturers' parts. . . and so, it creates a delay and the whole process, too. Usually we used to be able to get parts overnight, maybe two days. Now, it's taken up to two weeks just to get parts in,” Shick said.  

If a deer jumps out of nowhere, for safety and insurance wise, Robert Lafaro with Lafaro Insurance Agency said you don't want to swerve. 

“Break but don't swerve. So this is huge. . . what happens is if you swerve to miss the animal and you impact something else like a tree, bridge or you go into a ditch, now you turned it from a comprehensive claim, an accident with a deer to an accident with an object. And now it's a collision claim. Now, it's potentially a surcharge accident, depending on how much was paid out,” Lafaro said.

 Lafaro said paying extra attention on rural roads at night, using a seat belt and slowing down can make all the difference for your safety and for insurance. 

“Every ounce of prevention when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle can potentially trickle down to your bottom line cost, when it comes to insurance. So never treat any forms of risk prevention lightly,” Lafaro said.