kbgibby
Threebeards
Saw this in the Chicago Trib on line today --
Report: Deer-Related Accidents Cost $1.1B
By ADAM ASHTON
Associated Press Writer
Published November 4, 2003, 7:29 PM CST
WASHINGTON -- Some 150 people die each year in more than 1.5 million traffic accidents involving collisions with deer, according to an insurance industry-funded report released Tuesday that puts the economic damage at $1.1 billion.
The study relied on federal and state records as well as academic studies on the issue to develop the national estimates. Researchers hired by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to produce the report said theirs was the first to look at the accidents nationwide.
"People ask what can motorists do. In a lot of cases, not very much, because they just come flying out at you," said Allan Williams, an institute researcher who worked with a representative of Highway Safety North of Ithaca, N.Y., and two deer experts from Cornell University.
The report focuses on steps by local governments to reduce accidents and recommends fences and reducing deer herds as the most effective ways of keeping the animals off the roads.
The study notes frequent public opposition to herd reduction plans and says that fencing can be costly to maintain and disruptive to natural deer behavior.
Highway reflectors, high-pitched whistles, signs and other methods to prevent collisions show mixed results, the report says.
Wisconsin's Transportation Department relies heavily on driver education to limit deer accidents, and last week, at the start of deer mating season, announced a new program.
"The one thing we can try to influence is motorist behavior, to get motorists to understand there is a hazard," agency spokesman Dennis Hughes said. "That being said, people still hit them."
Already this year, seven people on motorcycles have died in collisions with deer, he said.
The government's auto safety agency, which records the cause of death in each vehicle accident, determined that about 154 people die each year from crashes involving wildlife.
The insurance report relied on state studies from Michigan and Minnesota to estimate that more than 90 percent of wildlife accidents are caused by deer.
Researchers reviewed studies from 1995 and 1997 in a publication by The Wildlife Society, a nonprofit scientific and education association, to estimate the annual number and cost of deer-related accidents.
The insurance group updated those figures by comparing them with a University of Wisconsin study this year that accounted for deer accidents in the upper Midwest.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
Report: Deer-Related Accidents Cost $1.1B
By ADAM ASHTON
Associated Press Writer
Published November 4, 2003, 7:29 PM CST
WASHINGTON -- Some 150 people die each year in more than 1.5 million traffic accidents involving collisions with deer, according to an insurance industry-funded report released Tuesday that puts the economic damage at $1.1 billion.
The study relied on federal and state records as well as academic studies on the issue to develop the national estimates. Researchers hired by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to produce the report said theirs was the first to look at the accidents nationwide.
"People ask what can motorists do. In a lot of cases, not very much, because they just come flying out at you," said Allan Williams, an institute researcher who worked with a representative of Highway Safety North of Ithaca, N.Y., and two deer experts from Cornell University.
The report focuses on steps by local governments to reduce accidents and recommends fences and reducing deer herds as the most effective ways of keeping the animals off the roads.
The study notes frequent public opposition to herd reduction plans and says that fencing can be costly to maintain and disruptive to natural deer behavior.
Highway reflectors, high-pitched whistles, signs and other methods to prevent collisions show mixed results, the report says.
Wisconsin's Transportation Department relies heavily on driver education to limit deer accidents, and last week, at the start of deer mating season, announced a new program.
"The one thing we can try to influence is motorist behavior, to get motorists to understand there is a hazard," agency spokesman Dennis Hughes said. "That being said, people still hit them."
Already this year, seven people on motorcycles have died in collisions with deer, he said.
The government's auto safety agency, which records the cause of death in each vehicle accident, determined that about 154 people die each year from crashes involving wildlife.
The insurance report relied on state studies from Michigan and Minnesota to estimate that more than 90 percent of wildlife accidents are caused by deer.
Researchers reviewed studies from 1995 and 1997 in a publication by The Wildlife Society, a nonprofit scientific and education association, to estimate the annual number and cost of deer-related accidents.
The insurance group updated those figures by comparing them with a University of Wisconsin study this year that accounted for deer accidents in the upper Midwest.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
