U of M researchers seeking to cut down state's number of car-deer crashes
MINNEAPOLIS -- November is peak time for car-deer crashes in Minnesota. Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Duluth are on a mission to reduce the number of deer-car collisions on Minnesota roads with a new study happening right now.
More than $20 million in insurance claims are filed every year because of car-deer crashes, but experts said that number is higher because many crashes are not reported.
The $200,000 study funded by the Minnesota Department of Transportation aims to make the roads safer, save drivers money and potentially save lives.
The study officially started in spring of 2021.
Ron Moen, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth who is also a part of the Natural Resource Research Institute, is working with Raphael Stern, an assistant professor in civil, environmental and geoengineering at the university's Twin Cities campus on the project.
Moen and some of his graduate students drive routine routes every couple of weeks around the Duluth area collecting data -- the number of dead deer they see on the side of the road, the speed limit in the area, how winding the road is. They also include other parts of Minnesota in the spring after the snowmelt as part of their research.
A big part of the research is figuring out how many car-deer crashes happen every year on Minnesota roads and where.
Annually, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety reports about 2,000 crashes, but so far researchers are finding it's closer to the number of insurance claims filed to State Farm Insurance related to deer-car crashes, which is more than 40,000 a year.
Researchers say if they can identify where these crashes happen most often and potential changes to help make the roads safer it's a big win for drivers.
"The way that I look at it is if we can, based on our research, if we can just reduce [deer-vehicle crashes] by 1 or 2 percent, that's still an incredible amount of good for people and for the deer," Moen said.
Stern has already begun analyzing the data collected. So far, he said roads with higher speed limits have higher rates of reporting deer crashes based on several factors including proximity to law enforcement and how much damage is caused by the crash.
He said they hope by winter of 2023, they can use results from the research to make suggestions to MnDOT for changes to roads statewide.
"So that might be changes to the design, changes to sight distances, or maybe clearing more brush along the edges," Stern said. "It might be bigger things like fencing, which is very expensive to install but is really effective at reducing the number of deer-vehicle collisions."
Stern notes the potential changes could also save MnDOT time and money in crews traveling Minnesota roadways to collect deer carcasses.