Accidents Mean Big Business For Body Shops
by Laura Monteverdi, Reporter
February 22, 2013 5:52 PM
Falling snow and icy roads made the Friday morning commute a little tougher than normal and kept Sioux Falls police busy with accidents.
“Most of the time what we see is people driving too fast for the road conditions," said Officer Sam Clemens of the Sioux Falls Police Department.
However, the poor weather conditions outside meant big business for local body shops.
“On a normal day we can see a few cars towed in, maybe 2 or 3. But when we get a big storm like today we can have about 10 cars towed into the shop,” said Evan Kindt, co-owner of Marv’s Body Shop.
Marv's Body Shop in Sioux Falls had a busier day than normal on Friday as tow trucks delivered mangled vehicles throughout the day.
“There's some that come in with normal fender bender stuff to one that came off the interstate and there's a lot of accidents on the interstate so that one had a bit more damage,” said Kindt.
Kindt said an accident could cost you a good chunk of change out of your wallet. He said just the airbag deploying is a $1,000 bill.
“If the accident set off your airbags, you probably needed it, but it's going to cost more to fix it," said Kindt.
The technicians at Marv’s said just because the snow has stopped outside, that doesn't mean their day will be any less busy.
“I think throughout today and tomorrow and even next week we'll see a lot of accidents come in from this storm,” said Kindt.
Sioux Falls Police said drivers reported 26 non-injury accidents between the hours of 5:30 A.M. and 10:30 A.M. on Friday.
