Prague - With more than six thousands traffic accidents claiming loss of five human lives cases of a car hitting an animal on the road get to the top in this year's police statistics on road traffic accidents in the Czech Republic.
The number of car-and-animal collisions between January and September 2007 almost reached the last year's total number of car accidents.
Besides, in 2006 nobody died due to the crash with a deer. This year is different. In April, for example, a cattle herd escaped from a farm near the central-Bohemian town of Loket, ending up on a road. Two people died in a fatal multiple pile-up which followed.
A group of wild-boars happened to be on a different road in June, when a truck hit them. Nobody was injured in this accident.
Presumption of guilt
In the police protocols on road accidents an animal is always considered the guilty one. However, conservationists or hunters are of a different opinion. Wild animals or birds are victims, they say.
But nobody knows the exact number of animals getting killed on the roads. There are no detailed statistics to check.
"According to the police records, there are about 8,5 thousand reported car accidents involving animals each year. However, the actual number will be much higher, and the damages run in millions of Czech Crowns," says Jiří Šilha, Czech-Moravian Hunters Association spokesman.
Animal rescue stations
Czech Conservationist Association shelters in their animal rescue stations some eight to ten thousands injured birds, hedgehogs and other creatures each year, car accidents being one of the chief problem-inducing factors.
More than six hundred animals that ended up in animal rescue stations last year were injured by a car. One of them was a buzzard, suffering from a complicated humerus fracture, which had to be fixed with nails.
"For smaller birds, traffic, together with high voltage electric wire, is the biggest threat," says Lukáš Viktora, secretary of Czech Ornithological Association, for Aktuálně.cz.
Animals. vs. Traffic
- 6185 accidents involving domestic or wild animals recorded between January and September
- That represents an increase of 1202 accidents compared to last year. No other category saw such a dramatic increase (24%)
- This year's animal-and-car accidents were fatal in five cases. Nobody was injured last year.
According to him, it is impossible to get an exact number of birds killed on roads each year. Partly so, because the carcasses are "taken care of" by predators. "How many of them are killed? Tens of thousands? Hard to tell, we simply do not have these records," Viktora says.
Subways, footbridges, fences
But the idea of protecting both drivers and animals finally takes a more important role, when new highways are constructed. They come with subways, footbridges or fences, explains Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD) spokeswoman Martina Vápeníková.
"For example highway D8 will be fenced in its entire length," she told Aktuálně.cz. With older highways, she added, the situation is different. Along the oldest one, highway D1, which connects Prague with Brno, fences are erected only when money is available. Places where crashes with animals are most frequent are a priority, in such case.
Building these protective facilities is not cheap. Environmental arrangements including animal footbridges over the new highway D8 which runs straight through the Bohemian Highlands (České středohoří) will cost more than a billion Czech Crowns.
The biggest problems by all means are the roads falling into a "fist class" category. "It is almost impossible to build fences there," says Vápeníková.
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Islands of isolation
Possibility of a collision with a passing car is not the only danger for animals. Some parts of highways and busy roads are no different from prison walls for big animals such as deer, elk, wolf or lynx.
These animals cannot cross such roads, which poses a big threat for the future of many animal species. Isolated animal groups can easily die out because of this. Roads are dividing the country into small islands, and living space for animals that require bigger areas, is shrinking.
These animals often suffer from the so-called insufficient genetic variety. They are not able to deal with unexpected loss caused by natural disasters or quick change of climate. Among the most endangered in the Czech Republic are elks.
The Ministry of Environment had a special map done several years ago, which should help prevent further division of the Czech landscape.
The worst situation is on the highway D1 in the area of Czech-Moravian Highlands (Vysočina), where a lot of big animals live. Ministry therefore recommended building two special animal bridges in that area for 140 millions Czech Crowns.
