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Reducing Car vs. Deer Accidents - Part Two
Going Green
Going Green: Reducing Car vs. Deer Accidents - Part Two
Car vs. deer collisions in New York State are no small matter. There are 40,000 – 50,000 car vs. deer collisions reported every year. USGS research biologist Brian Underwood is positive there are many more accidents than that.
“But I believe the numbers range in the forty, fifty, to sixty thousand reported deer/car crashes in the state of New York every year. [Probably underreported?] Oh, yeah at least by half,” Underwood said.
Which means the actual number of car/deer crashes is as high as 120,000. New research shows that barriers or guardrails installed to help protect drivers are obstacles that deer would rather walk around than jump over. But what brings them to the roadside in the first place?
Typically there are two motivations for animals to be near the road. One is because they're trying to reach some place beyond the road or there's something about the road itself that is attracting animals to be there. In the springtime, when the grasses emerge one of the first areas to grow is along the roadside and the deer are highly attracted to those because they've been eating sticks all winter long.The deer are also attracted to one of winter's leftovers, the salt residue from the efforts to keep the road free of ice and snow. Brian says if you spot deer grazing along the roadside just slow down and watch carefully.
And in that instance you're probably fairly safe because they're busy doing something else. The worst-case scenario is when half the group has already crossed the road and the remaining individuals are left on the opposite side. That's absolutely the high alert situation where you need to be prepared for animals that are absolutely going to be crossing the road.
The key to avoiding a car/deer crash is to slow down so you have time to react to whatever the deer decide to do.
