Road Safety and Avoiding Animals on Our Roads

When you get behind the wheel, worrying about an Animal Vehicle Crash (AVC) probably is not on top of your mind. But, really, it should be; because animals frequently find their way from the woods to the highways and suburban streets, putting them at risk of being hit by an unsuspecting driver. Encountering animals on the road while driving can be stressful and scary. Many animal crashes with vehicles cause bodily injuries, ranging from minor to serious. Unfortunately, many also result in fatalities. AVCs can cause serious injury to you, your passengers, the animal and your vehicle. AVCs remain under-recognised as a road safety issue and yet research indicates that Zimbabwe has a record of high prevalence of road traffic accidents involving AVCs. Most animal accidents with vehicles occur when a creature suddenly dashes into the road in front of a vehicle. They can also occur when animals are standing on the road and drivers do not see them until it is too late to stop.

Collisions with vehicles can involve domestic animals like dogs and cats, which may have escaped from their owners on a walk or from their home, or they could be strays. Do not let dogs out onto the road on their own. Keep all dogs on a leash while walking them on the road. In rural and peri-urban areas, large animals like donkeys may be on the road being ridden by people or used in animal-drawn vehicles such as carts, or could have escaped from their field. Other agricultural animals like sheep, goats, pigs and cows may also break out of their fields and barns and present a danger to road users. Fencing helps keep livestock and wildlife off from the highways and prevent crashes. Animal-drawn vehicles should not obstruct other traffic and should keep left unless when turning right. Such vehicles should have two white retro-reflectors on the front and red retro-reflectors on the rear. Drivers of animal-drawn vehicles should always wear reflectors. Herded animals, for example, donkeys, cattle, sheep and goats should be kept under control at all times. It is safer not to move animals after dark. If you do, then wear reflective clothing. When leading and herding animals, it is advisable to fly the red warning flags. It is advisable for adults to lead and/or herd animals. Additionally, animals must not be permitted to graze on any road with a bituminous surface of six metres or more in width.

Wild animals often live in the areas directly adjoining roads, such as fields, woodlands and hedgerows, and could easily stray out into the road, especially during mating seasons and during dawn and dusk, which are their most active times.

For safety purposes, animals must not be allowed to stray on any road. Wild animals mostly cross the roads at night. It is the time they will search for food and walk further to avoid contact with people and predators. At night, they are less scared of traffic because with less vehicles on the road, it is also much quieter than during daytime. Studies indicate that, globally, animal mortality from AVCs exceeds mortality from legal hunting and poaching. Besides being a major concern for wildlife conservation, vehicle crashes involving animals pose a serious concern for human safety and cause severe economic losses. In fact, globally, AVC-related damages amount to billions of dollars in vehicular repairs and loss of human lives annually. There is no doubt that the costs of mitigation measures for wildlife protection would be lower than the costs of AVCs.

Various wild species are attracted and negatively influenced by roads and these include amphibians, birds, insects, mammals and reptiles. Vehicular noise, vibrations and lights have a negative bearing on wildlife movements and behaviours that may result in altered gene flow. This wild animals’ attraction to the existing road network highways in wildlife-protected areas mostly leads to increased AVCs, resulting in direct wild animal mortality with a further impact on scavenging wild animals that eat carcasses that would have been accidentally killed. Road networks can also alter the feeding behaviour of large wild animals, especially for those species that are attracted to roads. For instance, browsing large wild animal species may be attracted to the normally green vegetation matter along the road edges, other ectothermic wild animals habitually bask on asphalt, while other herbivores tend to consume spilt grain from roadsides.

Avoiding animals on the road requires knowing how to react when you suddenly come upon an animal directly in front of you. These tips can help you avoid AVCs. Although there is no way of predicting when a wild animal may find its way onto a busy street or highway, there are a few measures that you, as a driver, can take in order to reduce the risk of being involved in an AVC. As a driver, get into the habit of scanning the roadside as you drive. If you see one animal, expect that there are others nearby. Make use of your high beams whenever possible, they will give you more time to spot and react to animals on the road. Always stick to safe speed. Drivers should always drive slower at night. Additionally, always wear the safety belt and also make sure your passengers have worn their safety belts too.

It is important for drivers to always keep alert for animals, especially in areas near woods and water. Drivers should also avoid distractions and always take note of animal warnings. It is advisable to always anticipate unpredictable behaviour from all animals. Equally important is to ensure that you and your passengers are not enticing animals onto the road, for example, by throwing food or food wrappers out of car windows attracting animals onto the road. Drivers should always maintain a safe amount of distance between their vehicle and others, especially at night. If the vehicle ahead hits an animal, the vehicle behind could also become involved in the accident.

If your vehicle does strike an animal, do not touch the animal. A frightened and wounded wild animal can be dangerous or further injure itself. If you see an animal near the road and think you have time to avoid hitting it, reduce your speed, tap your brakes to warn other drivers and sound your horn. If the animal is in your lane, brake firmly but do not swerve to avoid it. Sound your horn in a series of short bursts to frighten it away. The Government and other stakeholders have a big role to play in order to address the issue of AVCs, for example, enforcing speed limits in areas with animals. The lower the speed, the fewer collisions with animals. One of the most successful techniques for alleviating AVCs is to use fencing to prevent animals from crossing roads. For example, in 2018, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) erected a servitude fence on a 50km stretch along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo highway as part of measures to reduce road carnage caused by stray and wild animals. Unfortunately, some people are vandalizing and/or stealing the highway fence. It is important for us to desist from vandalizing and/or stealing highway fence as it is critical in AVC prevention. The Government may also consider constructing green bridges or wildlife crossing underpasses to enable animals to cross highways without having to negotiate traffic. Wherever and whenever motorists and animals share the same space, it is inescapable that some form of interaction will take place to the detriment of one or both parties. In fact, around the world, AVCs occur every day. While we cannot predict when an animal may unexpectedly run onto a busy road, by following the safety tips shared here we can work together to help keep our roads safer for all our country’s inhabitants - both human and animal.

Inserted by TSCZ, Operations Research and Marketing Section. Readers can contact TSCZ on the following e-mail: research@trafficsafety.co.zw