Wildlife collisions peaking across Canada

OTTAWA — Animal-vehicle collisions are increasing across Canada, with incidents in Alberta almost doubling since 1991.

When it comes to wildlife and motor vehicle accidents in Canada, November is the cruelest month, reports Canadian Press. This is the time of year when deer, elk and moose blindly blunder across highways and roads in order to find a partner to mate with.

In Alberta, there were 12,609 such accidents last year worth more than $25 million in claims and health-care costs.

Beware of Bambi: Tis the season for vehicle-wildlife strikes

Statistics show that collisions in other provinces are also on the rise, according to CP.

In Ontario the annual number of wildlife-vehicle accidents has almost doubled in the past decade to 13,729. Provincial transportation officials say many more go unreported.

In Manitoba, wildlife was involved in 11,000 such collisions.

Ontario and BC have tried to mitigate injuries by installing fencing along major highways and clearing brush from roads to improve visibility.

In Saskatchewan, the province has teamed up with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation to promote a program this fall called Go Slow and Save a Little Doe, which includes a media awareness campaign that warns motorists to keep their eyes peeled when driving through areas with big populations of deer and other wildlife.

BarryDavy, vice-president of field support services for Trimac Transportation in Calgary, in the past told Today’s Trucking that 57 animal strikes in Wyoming were reported by his drivers in one year alone. “In the old days, we had ultrasonic animal alerts but the things filled with slush and crap,” he said. “Now we’re experimenting with Bendix Xvision.”

The Xvision is a heat-sensitive camera that lets drivers “see” images five times farther away than the naked eye. Heat — from a body or a car — shows white on an in-cab display, typically mounted just below the driver’s line of vision. Or it can be a heads-up display, on the windshield.

Another high-tech option is the Eaton Vorad Collision Warning System, which uses radar to scan the terrain ahead of and beside a truck to warn drivers of unusual surfaces or potential objects. One of the criticisms of the system is that drivers may tune out persistent warnings when they’re in traffic. So it may be more effective on a rural or remote highway, where false alarms are less likely.

— With files from Canadian Press