Deer

1
UK CMA Insurance meeting , Milton Keynes, 2006
DeerVehicle Collisions in the UK A
nationwide issue Dr Jochen Langbein
P r e l i m i n a r y f i n d i n g s
2
Public / Media in UK still mostly
view Animal-Vehicle collisions as Freak
accidents
Biker dies in freak collision on A24 West
Sussex- BBC News 4 June 2006
DRIVER KILLED BY FLYING DEER .in freak
accident on A35, Hampshire (Daily Mirror 28 / 11
/ 2006)

• yet general estimates suggest that wild large
  mammals killed on roads in Britain every year
  include around
• 100,000 Foxes
• 50,000 Badgers
• 45,000 Deer

3

• In Unites States Deer-Vehicle Collisions are now
  widely recognised as a major Insurance risk
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report for
  2005 estimates
• 1,500,000 deer-vehicle collisions per annum in US
  
• 150 human fatalities
  
• 1.1 billion in property damage
• State Farm Insurance alone showed 192,877
  deer-related motor claims last year up 6
  (10,000) on previous 12 month period
• - The top ten ranked States contributed 51 of
  claims
• - and here DVCs make up 5 - 17 of all
  motor crash claims !

4
Where figures ARE available for European
countries also suggest

• Over 500,000 collisions with ungulates in Europe
  (excluding Russia) ever year
• Resulting in 300 people killed
• 30,000 people injured
• 1,000,000,000 material damage

(based on Road Kill data from 8 countries with
available records Including among others
Germany 120,000 roe 6500 wild boar 2800
red fallow Sweden 50,000 roe 4000 moose
Austria 35,000 roe 400 red deer
150 boar Denmark 10,000 roe 100 red
deer
5

• Deer-Collisions Project 2003-2007 - main aims
• to build for the first time a National Database
  of Road Traffic Collisions involving Deer in
  Britain
• assess accident factors, and related aspects of
  deer behaviour and management
• identify accident hot-spots
• Initiate studies of effectiveness of differing
  measures aimed at preventing such accidents

6
DVC records received
Data Source Categories Data Source Categories 2000 to 2005 Jan. 2003 - Dec. 2005
ST Road Accident Statistics Departments 1479 680
U Carcase Clearance / Up-lifts 6541 4066
IC Motor Insurance Claims (via 1 company ,FORTIS GP, only) 2013 770
D Deer-knowledgeable contributors 6560 3210
R Animal Welfare / Rescue 9700 3466
P Police Control Call Rooms 2186 1294
G General Public contributors (incl. via web-site) 1069 666
TOTAL 29548 19254
(those reported to the project are still likely
to represent lt20 of all DVCs occurring level
of duplicate reporting of incidents on same date
/ county is lt 5)
7
Data Source Categories Data Source Categories
ST Road Accident Statistics Departments (Regional Police Forces and/or Council Road Safety teams)
U Carcase Clearance / Up-lifts (e.g. recorded by Trunk Road Maintenance Agents UT or Local Authority Departments UC )
IC Motor Insurance Claims Departments Motoring Roadside Rescue Companies major Nationwide Car hire firms.
D Deer-knowledgeable contributors e.g. Wildlife managers / gamekeepers for major landholding organisations (e.g. Forestry Commission, MOD, National Trust) AND Independent Deer Managers / Stalkers members of BDS, BASC, DCS Ecological Consultants Mammal Recorders and Researchers.
R Animal Welfare/Rescue RSPCA / SSPCA / Vets / Wildlife Rescue Centres
P Police Control Call Rooms Wildlife Liaison Officers (for logs of any calls relating to deer / vehicle incidents)
G General Public (via web-site, email or direct contact)
Please report ALL Deer/Vehicle collisions or
dead deer seen at roadsides between 2003 to 2007
either on-line to www.deercollisions.co.uk or
info_at_deercollisions.co.uk
8
Only 18 of all Deer Collisions reported are in
Scotland ... BUT occur within lt10 of all
traffic therefore risk of hitting a deer per
mile driven doubles !
Total 16,519 DVC records 2003-5 plotted
9
Relative frequency of recorded DVCs in
20032004 in southern England replotted at finer
scale for nos. incidents per 5 km by 5 km OS grid
square.
10
Motor Claims
Fortis deer related claims 1999 to 2004

• Fortis Ins. Ltd
• 4.25 market share
• c. 1.3 Million private policies
• For 2003 2004
• Tot claims 252,709
• which included
• 776 with Deer (0.31 )
• 167 with Foxes
• 123 with Badgers

11
Likely number of significantly damaged vehicles
(i.e. above Insurance excess)

• Using sample from Fortis Group Insurance claims
  data
• (i.e. based on claims arising from their c. 1.3
  million private motor polices , equiv. to c.
  4.25 market share)
• for extrapolation to Great Britain suggests
  approx
• 10,700
• deer-related motor claims per year
• _at_ avg. cost 1320 13.9 Million in GB
• of which c. 18.5 in Scotland 2.57 M

12
Among c. 45,000 deer injured or killed in vehicle
collisions, near 500 of these lead to human
injury in the UK every year. Cost to Economy?
13
Deer Collisions contribute around 50 of all
human injury RTAs involving wild mammals and
around 23 overall among all animal (wild or
domestic) related vehicle accidents.
(Sample data for PIAs from 14 English Counties
in 1999-2003)
14

• Average Value of Prevention
• per Injury accident by severity
• (UK Highways Economic Note 1 2003 values)
• Fatal accident 1,492,000
• Seriously Injured 174,500
• Slightly injured 17,500
• Ave. per PIA incident 61,120

Value of Prevention of animal related human
injury RTAs (_at_ mean 61,000 per incident) c.
500 with Deer alone gt 30, 000, 000
per annum All Animal related gt 130
Million per annum Personal injury RTAs
15
Summary Deer RTA Costs

• Animal Welfare
• Deer Killed / Injured c. 46,000 (/- 9000),
• Vehicle damage (conservative estimate from
  private policies)
• c. 14 Million in GB
• Human Injuries
• c. 500 per annum _at_ economic cost gt 30 M
• Other cost include
• Live injured deer dispatch / rescue
• Carcass collection / disposal
• Traffic delays

16
How can Insurers help ?

• Insurance sector is potentially the Key source
  for provision of well stratified information on
  true scale , distribution and costs
• - but so far have good info from only one
  company.
• Insurance, taken together with ST19 human injury
  monitoring, presents most promising manner for
  consistent long term monitoring of changes
• - but we need to extend sample to wider
  range of companies
• Only basic records are needed per incident
• Date
• Location (road number / county / nearest town or
  village / grid?),
• Brief description (one line, if available e.g.
  Insured swerved to avoid deer, hit tree).
• If not possible to retrieve deer incidents from
  claims database then even total number of
  animal related motor claims per year are also
  of interest.

17
Insurers may also be able to help raise public
awareness of the risk of deer-vehicle collisions
and how to avoid them
e.g. Advice Drivers to Take note of signs
! Beware that deer often travel in
groups Heightened risk in areas through or near
to woodland. Highest risk times dusk to
midnight, and around dawn Also DVCs peak during
May and October to December Dont overswerve to
avoid Dip main beam if deer on road ahead to
avoid them freezing
Further details see www.deercollisions.co.uk /
avoidance