Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: They may be on the national emblem, but research has confirmed what many Australians have long suspected – kangaroos are the deadliest animal menace to drivers on the nation's roads.
Kangaroos and their smaller kin, wallabies, are famed for their tendency to leap into the path of highway traffic, endangering not only their own lives but those behind the wheel.
A study from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, has found the giant marsupials account for 60% of fatalities and 40% of injuries in accidents involving animals in NSW.
Lead researcher Daniel Ramp said kangaroos posed a greater threat than dogs, wandering stock or horses. Ramp and doctoral student Erin Roger made the analysis by studying figures from the state's Traffic Accident Database System.
"Often, drivers swerve to miss animals only to hit roadside obstacles, such as trees and poles or oncoming vehicles," said Ramp.
13 human deaths
There were 13 human deaths in almost 2,100 crashes involving kangaroos between 1996 and 2005, with a person treated for injury from such a crash once every three days, he said.
The study found that most accidents happened between dusk and dawn, when kangaroos tended to be searching for food, and they were much more frequent in the colder months and on weekends.
But Ramp warned many crashes went unreported and the real figures were likely to be much higher. "[It's] clear that only a small fraction of crashes with animals get reported to police," he said.
The odds of hitting a kangaroo are so high most farmers and people living in the country have fitted metal 'roo bars' to deflect kangaroo impacts from the front of their vehicle. Others use high frequency 'roo shoo' whistles to repel the macropods from their path.
Of course, the best way to avoid hitting animals is to drive more carefully. "Drivers can effectively reduce the likelihood of animal-vehicle crashes by reducing their driving speed and remaining alert while driving through areas where animals are more abundant," said Ramp.
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Kangaroos
Man is a threat to most large and medium-sized Mammals and Primates.
Kangafools
What about this for headline: “Humans’ Machines Pose Deadly Threat To All Living Creatures For Desire Of Convenience and Luxury”.
You could have added in this article that pedestrians and barricades are a “menace” to drivers. And what about that blasted sun, ugh! Totally menacing to drivers.
Kangaroos are Australia's Deer
I've never been to Australia, but I have studied the kangaroo. In this instance, the 'roo sounds a lot like Deer here in the states. They wander during the evening hours in search of food, and speeding drivers hit them when the deer are mesmerized by the headlights. Oddly enough, that's where the old saying, "Like deer in headlights." comes from.
Most animals who are nocturnal hunters have eyes that are dark adapted, and when bright lights hit them, they are paralyzed, and jump toward the light, instead of away from it.
Maybe if more people slowed down, and took it easy, then they wouldn't hit so many nocturnal animals.
We have Deer/Moose here in New England (US)
I suspect that every part of the world has problems with wild animals vs. cars...
We have a problem here with deer and moose. They unexpectedly leap in front of your car... You can't see them coming, they are very fast, and the moose are huge!
A moose weighs about 800 pounds... they have huge racks of antlers... very scary animals!
Here's some information from New Hampshire.... (one of the New England states)
On average, one to two people die each year in New Hampshire after hitting an animal while driving, said Peter Thomson, the coordinator for the Highway Safety Agency. Including Coffey, 11 people have died in collisions with moose in New Hampshire since 1997, according to the agency's statistics.
Nonfatal moose accidents are much more common, Thomson said. About 250 to 260 moose collisions happen each year throughout the state.
Moose are especially active in May and October, Thomson said, making those dangerous months for accidents. In May, moose emerge from the woods looking for salt, which drains off roadways as snow melts and collects in pools of water, he said.
Then in October, it's moose mating season, he said. And since moose "have no known enemy," he said, "when they want to walk across the road, they walk across the road. And they're not afraid about doing it."
Be grateful that kangaroos don't have antlers!
Slow Down
Slow Down and drive to the conditions. Accidents may still happen but it won't be as as a result of a driver hell bent on getting where they want to go as quickly as possible.
Sounds a bit like the standard Australian attitude 'If it moves kill it, if it grows cut it down."
Drive assuming an undectable hazard?
I commute 80km daily. On any part of this route there is quite a high chance of having a roo jump from the bush into your path.
Slow down? To 90km? 80? Or 30km/h? Beyond having somebody walk in front of the vehicle with a red flag a bull (roo) bar and insurance are common sense.
I appreciate and enjoy our wild life.
Slow down
Like your comment have to agree.
Most Australians have been brain washed from birth that our native wildlife is a pest and needs to be hunted down,purposely killed on the roads purposely and now hunted in national parks etc.
Kangaroos serve a purpose that`s why they are here on the planet.
Like the flying fox is needed to spread tree and plant seeds so is the Kangaroo spreading native grass seeds.
People take everything for granted and give a monkey what happens to our environment and animals. People are the biggest Pest on Earth. They are the cancer on the skin of this planet ruining it beyond repair.
The Kangaroos are gentle, majestic animals that have a tightly knitted family structure.Only people who have worked with them know what beautiful creatures they really are and what their impact on the environment really is.
Antje Struthmann
erratic roos
Kangaroos don't move like deer. The jump erratically and don't move in a straight line. Kangaroos grazing on the roadside (often hidden in roadside vegetation) are also prone to being frightened by the car and suddenly jumping out in front of it.
People should always drive more carefully. But Australia has vast stretches of long narrow roads you need to drive down to get from one town to the next, let alone the days it may take to drive to another city. You can't do the whole trip at 40km/h, to reduce the risk of hitting a kangaroo.
Kangaroos don't move like deer. The jump erratically and don't
"Kangaroos don't move like deer. They jump erratically and don't move in a straight line." ???
You might want to read up on the statistics for deer-vehicle collisions in Wisconsin or Minnesota. The only straight line a deer might ever move in, is right into a moving vehicle.
Be thankful 'roos don't come the size of a American moose.
Moose-vehicle collisions (because moose are the size and shape of full-grown cows on three-foot stilts) are very often fatal for the driver and his passengers, -even when they are in a freight truck.
Moose also are quite dark, making them nearly invisible at night.
I have been advocating for an open paintball season on moose in Maine, so they can be seen better by drivers. The idea would be to shoot the critters with paint-balls containing white paint.
The critter-lovers would rather we run into them and kill them and ourselves instead though. Go figure.
kangaroos a menace?
During my 15 years as a full time Motoring Editor I covered nearly one million km - a significant proportion on road tests,product tests, economy runs and rallies that took in central Australia, western NSW and Qld and the NT. Quite a lot of this driving was done between dusk and dawn.During this time I saw probably thousands of roos and wallabies but never got close to hitting one. With decent driving lights you can spot the light reflected in animals' eyes in plenty of time to slow down or stop, but you have to be always alert and scanning the ground to the side of the road continuously.The strangest situation I had with a roo was on the Highway to Darwin just past Elliot. I spotted a roo's eyes and braked to a halt from about 120 kph.The roo then hopped from the roadside to the front of my car, stopped, leaned on the bonnet and seemed to stare incredulously into the windscreen. It then hopped further across the road, stopped and came back for another look before shaking its head and leaving the scene. I concluded the roo was amazed that a car driver had actually stopped to let it cross the road.In some parts of the outback, taking evasive action to miss the bodies of feral pigs deliberately run down by semi drivers is a bigger risk than hitting a roo.Drive carefully and you won't rue the day.
Lionel Hurst, Brisbane