On the first Sunday of November each year in the United States, clocks “fall back” one hour with the end of daylight saving time and usher in the shorter, darker days of the winter months. This adjustment has serious implications beyond the loss of sunlight: research shows that the end of daylight saving time brings a 16% rise in vehicle and deer collisions in the week following.
Raphael Stern and Ron Moen with the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation studies discuss how deer collisions affect Minnesota drivers and how we can all stay safer as the seasons change.
Q: How do deer collisions affect Minnesota drivers?
Stern: Deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) pose a significant risk for Minnesota drivers. While most DVCs only cause property damage, collisions can cause an injury or, even worse, a fatality. About 1,300 DVCs are reported to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety each year, but our data — and data from insurance claims — suggests the true number of DVCs in Minnesota is at least 10 times higher, and maybe up to 20 times higher.
Moen: The total effect of collisions on drivers is complex. There is, of course, the cost of time and money for repairs to the vehicle after a collision, but — particularly when injuries or fatalities happen — there is a significant emotional cost on top of the financial.
Q: What contributes to the rise in deer collisions with the end of daylight saving time?
Stern: The rise in DVCs observed at the end of daylight saving time is likely a combination of three main factors. Deer are particularly active in the fall, and additionally more active around dusk and dawn. When we end daylight saving time, the peak commute hour coincides with dusk, which means there are a lot of people driving right at the time that there are a lot of active deer. This is a particularly dangerous combination.
Q: What steps can drivers take to avoid deer collisions?
Stern: Driver speed is a main factor. If you slow down, particularly in areas where you commonly see deer — such as near parks, forests or golf courses — you’ll have more time to react if you see a deer, and therefore more time to avoid hitting the deer.
Moen: The other most important behavior for drivers is to maintain awareness of your surroundings. You should consciously watch for deer as you’re driving, and if you see a deer, anticipate that it could move into the roadway. If one deer crosses the road, a second or third deer may follow.
Q: What should drivers do if a collision happens?
Moen: It depends on the severity of the collision and traffic conditions. If the collision is minor you may be able to keep driving. If your vehicle is not drivable, move it off the roadway, turn on your emergency flashers and check for traffic in all directions before you get out of the car to evaluate the damage. If there are injuries involved, call 911. In Minnesota, drivers are required to report any crashes that involve injury or death of a person, or cause more than $1,000 in property damage.
You should alert police by calling 911 if there is a dead deer in a traffic lane. This is so the dead deer doesn’t cause a secondary collision. Be especially careful when stopping on controlled access highways like interstates and on roads with high traffic volumes.
Q: How is the University of Minnesota improving knowledge on deer collisions?
Stern: We’ve been working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to gather data on all the DVCs reported in the past 20 years to predict roadway corridors and specific sections of those corridors that are particularly risky for DVCs. This provides insight into what factors — such as adjacent land use and speed limit — along with other roadway characteristics are particularly risky for DVCs.
Moen: This project was a first step to evaluate the overall effect of DVCs on Minnesota drivers — the last study created from Minnesota data was published in 2003. Since then we’ve had over 40,000 DVCs reported to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which, given our estimates of the reporting rate, add up to several hundred thousand DVCs in actuality. This is a tremendous financial and emotional cost. If our project helped reduce DVCs by even one half of a percent, it would more than pay for itself.
Raphael Stern, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the University of Minnesota College of Science of Engineering and scholar in the Center for Transportation Studies. His research focuses on modeling and control of transportation systems as well as transportation data analysis. Before joining the University of Minnesota, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich and a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University. Raphael has all his degrees from the University of Illinois.
Ron Moen, Ph.D., is a wildlife biologist at the Natural Resources Research Institute and an associate professor in the Swenson College of Science and Engineering on the Duluth campus. He has held graduate faculty appointments in Integrated Biosciences on the Duluth campus since 2004 and Conservation Biology on the Twin Cities campus since 2005.
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About the Center for Transportation Studies
The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota is a national leader in transportation research, engagement and education. CTS collaborates with public-sector, industry and academic partners to shape transportation systems that are sustainable, serve the needs of all users, support a strong economy and improve our collective quality of life. Learn more at cts.umn.edu.
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