According to figures from Highways England, 2,143 dead animals were found on motorways and major trunk roads in 2015. During the same period, the Highways Agency also reported that 8 people were killed in a collision with an animal, with 179 critically injured and over 1300 casualties during the same period. With new roads being built in rural areas every year, establishing protocol to protect wildlife and ensuring driver safety is of paramount importance.
Protecting wildlife near highways and trunk roads is becoming increasingly problematic for local highway authorities. Lack of resources to tackle the problem is a reoccurring theme for many who try to prevent animal-vehicle collisions. Sourcing funding in order to improve public and wildlife safety is necessary to build preventive fencing and increase signage, which would decrease the number of animal-vehicle collisions. Further exacerbating the problem is a lack of concrete research. Ensuring sufficient data is vital because the full scale of the problem remains unknown, which makes it difficult to convey a message of danger to governing bodies and more importantly, the general public. For example, the Deer Initiative charity estimates that there were anywhere between 42,000 and 74,000 deer-vehicle collisions occurring in the UK. These numbers are high, and if proven correct, it is fair to assume that the total number of animal-vehicle collisions in the UK is much higher than those published by Highways England. The inconsistency in these figures highlights the need for further investigation into animal-vehicle collisions in order to understand the full extent of the problem.
In July 2016 the Local Authority Roads (Wildlife Protection) Bill passed through its first reading in Westminster, with a second reading being scheduled for early February (2017). If passed, the bill will place a responsibility on local highway authorities to safeguard wildlife on publicly used roads. In brief, the bill calls on local highway authorities to review the wildlife in specified protected areas in its areas; asses the risks between local wildlife and traffic; and extend provisions in safeguarding wildlife such as increasing signage, safe crossings and promoting speed restrictions in high risk zones.
In light of recent political developments, this timely symposium will assess the progress of the Local Authority Roads (Wildlife Protection) Bill with local highway authorities, national and local wildlife charities as well as civil engineers; it will also highlight solutions for protecting wildlife by discussing enhanced fencing, clearer signage and greater inclusion of animal crossings in newly built road projects. The event will also offer an opportunity to attendees to build partnerships between local highway authorities and wildlife conservation trusts in order to establish sufficient research surrounding the animal-vehicle collisions. Finally, the event will discuss the feasibility of including ‘hazards caused by wildlife’ into the DVLA curriculum.