Insurance
Investigators Mountain Vista Governors School
11/3/2008
2:14:00 PM
The increasing deer population is presented a
huge problem for insurance companies. In
the United States, there have been over 750,000
animal-vehicle collisions. Deer-vehicle
crashes cause over 200 deaths per year, tens of
thousands of injuries, and over $1.1 billion
dollars in property damages. The Erie Insurance
Company, using over 10 years of data,
estimated that one in every 100 drivers will be
likely to have a collision with a deer. While
over the past 10 years claims have decreased around
the country, in states like West
Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, claims for
vehicle-deer collisions have increased. In
West Virginia, you are three times more likely to
hit a deer than in any other state. While
all of these claims have been reported, Cornell
University conducted a study that concluded
that only one out of every six collisions is
reported.
Nearly two-thirds of these deer accidents occur
in the months between October and December. This is
the deer’s mating season. With the deer having
nothing but mating on their mind, they are even less
conscious of the road and the consequences of
running out onto one. While some believe that it is
hunters that are causing the deer to flee from their
forests and into the roads, scared of
the men stomping around their forests, studies have
shown that there are just as many
deer-vehicle crashes on roads surrounded by forests
that have banned hunting. Also, there
is no hunting at night, when most vehicle crashes
occur.
In order to avoid collisions with deer,
insurance companies have several suggestions for
drivers. These tips are simple, ones that any
safe, cautious driver should be practicing: Be
conscious, specifically on the
lookout for deer. Around twilight and at night is
the time when most deer are active. Look
for the silhouettes of deer or the reflection of the
headlights in their eyes so that you
know to slow down. If you see a dear, do not assume
it will run. Brake and honk your horn.
If you cannot avoid hitting the deer, do not
swerve.
While these tips tend to be the best, and
surest, ways for avoiding deer-vehicle collisions,
companies and states have been experimenting with
alternatives. One alternative is being experimented
with in Colorado. An electromagnetic sensor has
been installed next to the highways. These will be
able to
sense the deer, alerting the drivers by flashing
lights so that they know to slow down.
However, the effectiveness of this technology
depends on the awareness of the drivers.
Another is a deer whistle, which emits ultrasonic
sounds to warn the deer of the oncoming
vehicle. These whistles, however, have not always
proved effective. In Iowa, the
government has erected eight-foot tall fences near
the highways in hopes that the deer will
get the hint and stay off the highway.
Another idea that insurance companies had to
reduce the amount of deer-vehicle collision claims
was to reintroduce predators into the wild. Because
the deer’s natural predators have been hunted until
they have been reduced drastically in numbers, the
deer population has exploded. With no real natural
predators,
they have nothing maintaining their numbers and thus
have become a huge problem. By
introducing the deer’s natural predators, insurance
companies are hoping that the deer
population will be reduced to a manageable number
and that more deer will be kept off of
roads and highways.
The best predator to re-introduce into the wild
would be the mountain lion. These animals tend to
shy away from large communities, preferring
solidarity to large groups. They do not travel in
packs, so the odds of encountering more than one
would be extremely slim. In areas such as Florida,
where mountain lions have been re-introduced, the
lions were castrated so that they could not
reproduce. The cats
had also been raised in captivity so that they were
accustomed to human encounters, and
thus less likely to attack.
In order to re-introduce predators into the
wild, the public would need to be comfortable with
the idea. Some think that re-introducing the
predators would cause the population of deer to drop
below the ideal level, thinned out more than was
needed. However, predator and prey populations are
directly correlated. A high population of predators
cannot survive with a low population of prey. If
the population of
deer dropped, then so would the population of
mountain lions.
The public’s worry about mountain lion attacks
is not a rational fear. In the United States and
Canada, there are about 6 attacks per year,
resulting in about 1 death. While an attack is
possible, it is
extremely unlikely. The public is just unsure of
this idea because it is unfamiliar. In most
areas of the country where mountain lions could be
re-introduced, they already deal with
natural predators in that area. In the north, they
deal with bears. In the south along the
coast, they deal with alligators. The people of
those areas have found ways to either co-
exist or completely avoid those predators. The
re-introduction of the mountain lion is one
that needs to be warmed up to. With a wary public,
it cannot just be jumped into, but it
cannot be disregarded as an option either. This is
a viable option that needs to be
introduced to the public as a way to manage the
booming deer population.
The most logical, and probable, way to reduce
the deer population would be to put fewer
restrictions
on hunters. This seems to be easiest and cheapest
way to reduce the deer population.
Hunters are anxious to go deer hunting, wanted less
restrictions. Fewer hunting
restrictions would allow the population to be
reduced, thus keeping the deer off of the
road.
These measures to protect the drivers from
collisions with the deer can only be
taken with the insurance company’s influence on the
government. Insurance companies
cannot possibly take these deer management measures
into their own hands. The highways
are owned by the states and federal government and
thus can only be changed by those
bodies. However, insurance companies can lobby for
laws to be improved. They have to be
willing to give fund the change, which entails
donating a large percentage of money. For
example, the electromagnetic sensors will be
extremely expensive. The only way to get this
idea approved would be to appeal to the senators,
showing that they would be willing to
fund that plan to reduce vehicle-deer collisions.
The rising deer population has become a huge
issue in the United States. In order to protect
drivers, solutions need to be found to reduce the
number of deer. While the easiest and cheapest way
to go about this would be to put fewer restrictions
on hunters, there are several other options that
should be
considered. One is to use technology on highways
that would inform the drivers of the
presence of deer. However, funding by insurance
companies would be needed for the
state and federal government to allow this
alternative to be put into action. The other and
what seems to be the most controversial alternative
would be to re-introduce the deer’s
natural predator into the environment. All of these
solutions need to be taken into account,
not simply dismissed; with vehicle-deer collisions
being so frequent, we need to take
advantage of every option we have to protect our
drivers.
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