1. Temporal patterns of moose-vehicle collisions with and without personal injuries
- Author
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Milla Niemi, Jyrki Pusenius, Wiebke Neumann, Raisa Tiilikainen, Christer Moe Rolandsen, Erling Johan Solberg, Tuomas Kukko, and Göran Ericsson
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Risk ,Automobile Driving ,Poison control ,Human Factors and Ergonomics ,mitigation measures ,Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 [VDP] ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Suicide prevention ,Occupational safety and health ,traffic safety ,0502 economics and business ,Injury prevention ,Forensic engineering ,Animals ,Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality ,Animal-vehicle collision ,Finland ,Population Density ,Sweden ,050210 logistics & transportation ,Norway ,injury risk ,Deer ,05 social sciences ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Accidents, Traffic ,Human factors and ergonomics ,Awareness ,Personal injury ,Geography ,population management ,deer ,Seasons ,Demography ,Large animal - Abstract
tCollisions with wild ungulates are an increasing traffic safety issue in boreal regions. Crashes involvingsmaller-bodied deer species usually lead to vehicle damage only, whereas collisions with a large animal,such as the moose, increase the risk of personal injuries. It is therefore important to understand boththe factors affecting the number of moose-vehicle collisions (MVCs) and the underlying causes thatturn an MVC into an accident involving personal injuries or fatalities. As a basis for temporal mitigationmeasures, we examined the annual and monthly variation of MVCs with and without personal injuries.Using a 22-year-long (1990–2011) time series from Finland, we tested the effect of moose populationdensity and traffic volume on the yearly number of all MVCs and those leading to personal injuries. Wealso examined the monthly distribution of MVCs with and without personal injuries, and contrasted theFinnish findings with collision data from Sweden (years 2008–2010) and Norway (years 2008–2011). Bothmoose population abundance indices and traffic volume were positively related to the yearly variationin the number of MVCs in Finland. The proportion of MVCs involving personal injuries decreased duringour 22-year study period. The monthly distribution of all MVCs peaked during the autumn or winterdepending on country, while MVCs involving personal injury peaked in summer. Our study indicatesthat efforts to reduce MVCs involving personal injuries need to address driver awareness and attitudesduring summer, despite most MVCs occurring in autumn or winter.© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Animal-vehicle collision, Traffic safety, Population management, Mitigation measures, Injury risk, Deer
- Published
- 2015