High-tech warnings cut animal collisions

CONCORD, N.H. – Help soon may be on the way for New Hampshire and other states plagued by highway collisions involving animals.

Researchers say high-tech equipment to warn drivers when animals such as moose or deer are on the road has reduced collisions dramatically.

About 1.5 million animal collisions kill more than 200 people every year across the country and injure another 29,000, the state Transportation Department said.

A six-year project by New Hampshire and 14 other states included experiments with a system that detects large animals crossing into the road, then activates warning lights and signs for drivers.

The state Transportation Department official who has been working on the study said if the next phase of the research goes well, the detection system could be ready for general use in a couple of years.

“My guess is somewhere between one and four years we’d be doing something,” said engineer Greg Placy.

The theory is that drivers who see the warning signs or lights will slow down and be more alert, cutting the amount of time it takes to hit the brakes if they see an animal in the road and allowing them to stop, on average, 68 feet sooner, at 55 mph.

The two main systems either detect animals with sophisticated heat sensors or when an animal walks through a laser beam on the side of the road.

Researchers say the system has proven reliable and one study in Switzerland concluded it reduced animal crashes by 82 percent.

Placy said most of the U.S. research so far, primarily in Yellowstone National Park in Montana, has involved the detection system, without the warning lights.

They had the lights hooked up for some of the research, but found the system was signaling too often when there were no animals, or not signaling when there were.

Those bugs have been finetuned, so much so, for instance, that the system can filter out the disturbance caused by a snowstorm or bird flying through the area and still give an accurate warning if a moose crosses the road in a blizzard.

“It deletes … the snowstorm and is still going to recognize something other than the snowstorm,” he said.

The next step is to study how drivers react to warning lights.

“Does the public react to lights being on, warning actively that something is ahead of them, or are they ignoring it like they do all other signs,” Placy said.

The question is especially important for local drivers because a sign they see everyday can easily become part of the landscape.

The researchers hope a flashing light will make the difference, especially as they continue improving the system to remove false warnings.

“If the light came on and you see an animal next to the road, you’re going to react to it differently than if the light came on and you didn’t see an animal by the road,” he said.

Placy said the hot spots for moose collisions in the state are the intersection of Routes 115 and 2 in Jefferson and between Interstate 93 exits 35 and 37 in Franconia.

He can’t wait for a safety system to be deployed.

“We need to do something,” he said.