Prevention of Road Accidents caused by Deer (Capreolus capreolus)

Collisions which occur between deer and motor vehicles are often inevitabile, because they originate from sudden situations which catch motorcar drivers unaware. These risky situations are caused by the behaviour of animals and, generally speaking, by the speed of drivers. The department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering - Division of Territorial Engineering of the Bologna University for some years has been observing this problem and has developed two reasearch channels. The first is to monitor a main road “at risk” with anti-wildlife “Cats eyes”/reflectors. These reflect the beams of the headlights towards the external aerea frightening the deer, who would want to cross when the driver is passing. The second is a patented system which stimulates, at the same time, the attention of both drivers and deer. The results are comforting: with the cats eyes we have obtained a drastic decrease in accidents, whilst with the patented system, it would appear from the first trials that results have been efficient promising.