LITTLETON – For deer, the autumn time change Sunday morning means bother: a 16% spike in collisions with autos over the next week, regardless of years of security campaigns and the development of 75 particular crossings alongside highways.
Drivers in Colorado collided with no less than 54,189 wild animals over the previous 15 years, in accordance with newly compiled Colorado Department of Transportation information. That’s far fewer than in lots of different states, corresponding to Michigan, the place vehicle-life collisions usually quantity greater than 50,000 in a single yr.
The carnage — especially this time of year — more and more happens the place animals face the most individuals alongside the closely populated Entrance Vary, past the mountainous western half of the state that holds a lot of the remaining prime habitat, state information present.
State leaders and wildlife advocates gathered on Thursday close to one of many crossings alongside the high-speed C-470 beltway in southwest metro Denver to launch a security campaign.
“We’ve made wildlife crossings a precedence in our rural areas, and in addition more and more in city areas,” CDOT Director Shoshana Lew mentioned. “We can’t put underpasses and overpasses in all places. Notably right now of yr, we urge everybody to watch out of wildlife.”
Lew credited the crossings with containing collision numbers that might be a lot larger in Colorado, given the visitors and the prevalence of deer and different wild animals. Many of the state’s freeway building initiatives, such because the work on Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs that features a giant wildlife bridge, will consider wildlife security wants, Lew mentioned.
The chance of collisions spikes this time of yr as a result of deer and elk migrating to decrease elevations, bringing extra animals throughout highways. The top of daylight saving time additionally performs a task as extra drivers navigate roads through the comparatively low-visibility hours earlier than and after sundown, when deer usually transfer about.
In Colorado, the 54,189 vehicle-animal collisions that CDOT recorded from 2010 by way of 2024 brought on the deaths of 48 car occupants and greater than 5,000 accidents. The animals breakdown: 82% deer, 11% elk, 2% bears.
Ten counties the place autos hit probably the most animals throughout that interval included 5 alongside the Entrance Vary — Douglas, Jefferson, El Paso, Larimer, and Pueblo — with a mixed whole of 12,791 collisions, state information present. That compares with 11,068 within the different 5 counties in western Colorado — La Plata, Montezuma, Garfield, Moffat, and Chaffee.
Colorado lawmakers over the previous twenty years have directed funds for the set up of increasingly more wildlife crossings, sometimes overpasses and underpasses mixed with fencing alongside highways. “These will be as much as 90% efficient in decreasing collisions,” Environment America researcher Rachel Jaeger mentioned.
Most just lately, in 2022, lawmakers arrange a wildlife secure passage fund with a $5.5 million funding for crossing building. That cash’s been spent. State transportation planners have recognized places the place crossings are wanted, such because the stretch of U.S. 40 between the intersection with I-70 and the city of Empire, the place bighorn sheep stay.
Wildlife-vehicle collisions have proved persistent sufficient that security advocates have launched a social media marketing campaign and are mulling new methods, corresponding to selling ridership on CDOT’s intercity Bustang buses as an animal-friendly strategy to transfer.
“Depart your driving to an expert,” mentioned Danny Katz, director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group. “Simply take public transportation.”
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