National implications of regional deer-vehicle crash data collection, migration, and trends

The magnitude and trend of the deer-vehicle crash (DVC) problem in the United States can only be grossly estimated. Data that could be used to define this problem more closely are not consistently collected. However, at least two “national” surveys have attempted to estimate the number of DVCs in the United States and their results critically have been evaluated and presented. The number of fatalities and estimated non-fatal injuries in the United States due to animal-vehicle collisions will also be included. The inability to properly define the DVC problem in the United States is primarily related to the misunderstandings produced by the collection, estimation, and combination of several data sets (with varying characteristics) that can be used to describe it. During the last four years the DVCIC staff has completed a DVC data collection and management survey and also collected (if available) 10 years of police-reported DVCs, deer-carcass numbers, and deer-population estimates for a five-state region (i.e., Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). The survey was primarily completed to document, compare, and/or combine the state-level DVC data collected properly Representatives from the Departments of Transportation and Natural Resources from each state were surveyed and used to collect the data. The results of the survey, and the analyses and evaluation of the data collected, will be included in this presentation and paper. Summaries of the information gained from the survey and the data collected will be used to recommend activities to improve the current understanding of the DVC problem in the United States