A RACE study, carried out a couple of years ago, revealed that, in our country, there were 599 accidents due to running over animals on interurban roads. With this starting point, the University of Salamanca and the Ministry of Mobility and Digital Transformation of the Junta de Castilla y León have designed unique traffic signals in the world: they inform, in real time, of the possible intrusion of animals to make conventional roads safer.
The running over of animals in Spain is a dangerous problem. From those 599 accidents to which the RACE refers, 510 took place on a conventional road. A typology of accidents that has grown by 25% since 2015, when 407 accidents were recorded. In total, almost a thousand people were injured, 58 of them hospitalized, and there were ten deaths.
The most common scenario for these incidents are back roads, which also worsen their consequences: poor visibility conditions (of the road itself or due to insufficient lighting) goes hand in hand with the usual night outing for game species. It should also be added that the five most present species are dogs and wild boars (both with 25%), followed by roe deer and, to a lesser extent, cattle and deer.
Three levels of risk
With the objective of reduce accidents with fauna, a relevant problem in Castilla y León, the Ministry of Mobility and Digital Transformation and the University of Salamanca joined forces in 2019. New intelligent traffic signals were born from this collaboration, which can inform drivers (in real time) about the possibilities What about an animal breaking into the road.
The vertical panel is integrated by the danger sign P-24, which, with the drawing of a deer, warns of the passage of animals in the wild. Beneath it appears a light panel indicating the level of risk and the number of kilometers. The warning is only carried out if a certain threshold is exceeded: they have wanted the alerts to only occur at specific times so that drivers do not get used to them and lose effectiveness.
- Switched off: it only warns that the driver enters a section with a special concentration of accidents with wildlife
- Yellow: warns that the risk of an animal breaking into the road is greater than normal
- Red: alert that the chances of an animal appearing on the road without much higher than usual
30 signs
After the experimental design phase, as reported by the Chain BEhas proceeded to install 30 of these signs in eleven sections of the Castilla y León Autonomous Road Network, where there is a special concentration of accidents with wildlife. Drivers will find them in Burgos (CL-117, CL-632, BU-542, BU-820, BU-904, BU-925), Palencia (CL-615, CL-619), León (LE-125, LE -420) and Soria (SO-920).
How to predict the accident rate?
In order to prepare the signs, the Department of Animal Biology of the University of Salamanca and the Junta have carried out a study in which they conclude that the accident rate with wildlife it concentrates on space and time: it is not mere chance.
It is possible to identify sections with a special concentration of this type of accidents because they are wooded areas, have natural vegetation or are close to water points. To this we must add that there are times of the year in which the incidents are more frequent because they coincide with the mating season and, throughout the day, they are more frequent at sunset, in the early hours of the night and at dawn. And the influence of the lunar phase should also not be overlooked in the accident rate patterns: it rises with the full moon because herbivorous animals move more.
Images: Junta de Castilla y León