SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Brian Linton of Roanoke Wreck Repair works on a vehicle's rear quarter panel Tuesday. The shop has seen a 20 percent boost in business because of the wintry weather. Other auto body shops in the area have seen more traffic, too.

SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

At least 15 of the 40 cars at Roanoke Wreck Repair are there because of snow-related damage.

The mechanics never even started work on the victims: a stately light blue Cadillac Sedan deVille and a youthful black Nissan.

The cars, their bumpers and bottoms smashed and dirtied in weather-related crashes, sat parked in the snow behind Hannabass & Rowe Collision Center in Roanoke County on Tuesday. They were totaled and deemed by insurance companies too costly to save.

"The back bumper is plumb up into the trunk," Patrick Abbott, a foreman at the shop, said after circling the '91 Cadillac. He described the driver losing control on a patch of ice and sliding the back end of the car across the road.

The Nissan 240SX would never see its owner again either, the same owner who had pumped hundreds of dollars into souping up its wheels, motor and seat cushions.

Most of about 20 wrecked vehicles in repair at Hannabass & Rowe were there because of weather-related crashes. Five more are scheduled to come in this week for work, Abbott said.

And all of the car carnage is good for auto body shops across the Roanoke Valley.

Hannabass & Rowe had a 10 percent boost in revenue in December and January because of snow, and owner Dennis Holdren said he expects an increase of 5 percent this month.

Robert Belcher, a manager at Earl Scheib Paint & Body in Roanoke, also said business is up because of the weather, with a handful of cars coming in each day since the last snowfall.

After an accident, it takes a week or more for cars to reach the body shops, while insurance adjusters assess the severity of the crash and decide what their companies will reimburse. Repair costs may range from $600 after a fender bender to $25,000 for luxury cars, said Bill O'Brien, owner of Roanoke Wreck Repair.

His shop, with more than 40 cars in its bays Tuesday, has had a 20 percent bump in work because of wintry weather, he said.

"It came down so fast, it kept us busy for a month and a half," he said about the December snowstorm. "We won't see the reaction to this for probably a week or two, but we've gotten calls."

Jim Jennings, an Allstate Insurance spokesman, said car owners should call their insurance agents to report weather-related damage. As the snow continues to fall, they should cover up damage on vehicles with tarps or plastic to prevent further problems, he said.

"People are sliding off the road and going into the woods, and every accident is different," O'Brien said.

State police based in Salem fielded almost 700 calls for service on the roads between midnight Friday and 10 p.m. Sunday, when almost 10 inches of snow and ice piled up in Roanoke, said spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri. The calls included 270 crashes in the division's 14-county area, he added.

With snowstorms and crashes, timing is everything.

"It depends on when that snow starts falling," Hannabass' Holdren said.

An overnight snowfall on the weekends keeps crash volume low because people stay home Saturday morning and forgo trips. But a blizzard at 5 p.m. on a Friday, like Southwest Virginia's massive pre-Christmas blitz, will catch more travelers in their cars.

The people of Virginia learn quickly, though. Most heeded warnings to stay off the road the second and third times it snowed, said Martha Meade, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, which covers Virginia, Washington, Maryland and Delaware.

"There were some points in the heat of the storm where our call volumes were very low," Meade said of the weekend's storm. "Staff was on-site, and we were geared up and ready."

AAA's calls for service typically increase a day or two after the snow, when people return to their normal routines and are caught off guard by unplowed streets or ice, she said.