While driving in hazardous weather can be risky, it can also become expensive. Most motorists driving in adverse weather, such as the storm last weekend, will reach their destinations safely.

Most – but not all.

For those who experience a property damage accident involving their vehicle, there are usually costs involved. These can involve towing charges, vehicle suspension repairs and repairs to the automobile’s body.

Wayne Rantamaki, owner of Precision Automotive in Houghton, said costs can include more than just a towing charge. Damage to the vehicle can vary, depending on several factors.

“Every car is different., and it depends on the snowbank that’s hit,” Rantamaki said. “It depends on if it’s a soft snowbank, a hard snowbank or how solid it is.”

These factors can determine the amount of damage done to a vehicle, he said.

“Tie rod ends, CV axles, ball joints – any impact to the wheels can cause damage. And if you get snow jammed into the radiator, your car can overheat, causing more problems.”

Rantamaki wanted to caution drivers on one particular point.

“Don’t have somebody come along and pull you out with a chain that doesn’t know what they’re doing,” he said. “That can do more damage. They reach under and hook a chain onto a suspension bar and pull the wheel out of alignment. If you stick the chain hook onto something that isn’t meant to have a chain attached to it, it’s going to cause damage and cost more than if you just hired a tow truck to pull you out. There are places on a car that are meant to attach a hook to, and there are other places you can’t.”

While the cost of suspension and other damage to the vehicle can vary depending on the severity of the accident. As Rantamaki points out, it can be cheaper in the long run to simply call a tow truck.

Chris Tapini, owner of Big T Towing of Hancock, pulls quite a number of vehicles from ditches, and his towing charges can vary.

“My minimum winch in town is 50 bucks,” he said. “That’s in town.”

According to Tapini, many of the accidents he deals with are not caused so much by driver error but by conditions.

“For instance, in the past three days, I did close to 45 calls,” he said. “A lot of it was conditions. More or less, if you don’t have to be on the road, don’t be on the road.”

In reference to winches during the recent storm, Tapini said, nearly all the vehicles he towed were the result of road conditions.

“I’ve only responded to two accidents,” he said. “The rest were because of the roads”

Tapini said that in the worst of the storm on Saturday night, in many instances, he had to use his truck to plow a path to the vehicles he had been called to rescue.

“We went out to Liminga on Saturday, and we had snow coming over the hood of the truck. It was that bad. “I worked until 4 in the morning, we were still getting calls, and I said, ‘that’s enough. We’re closed. We’ll open back up at 8.”

Tapini said many of the calls he receives are the result of people getting their vehicles stuck and simply abandoning them.

“I’ve towed 11 cars for the city of Hancock just for parking ban violations, from 2:30 to 7a.m.,” he said. “They’re getting the car stuck and leaving the cars. I worked until 4 in the morning, and we were still getting calls. I said, ‘That’s enough. We’re closed. We’ll open again at 8 a.m.”