Over 13 percent of accidents on highways are caused by animals. Autumn nights are the most risky

The Czech Office of Insurers stated this in a press release on Tuesday, referring to data from the Accident Portal from 2010. Autumn is a risky period due to reduced visibility, early darkness and adverse weather, the analysis warns.

On lower grade roads, collisions with wildlife account for 10.8 percent of accidents. “While in the district it is usually broken reflectors or crumpled sheet metal, on highways the damage reaches tens of thousands of crowns,” the authors of the analysis said. According to them, the average damage on all Czech roads is 44,637 CZK, the average damage in accidents with animals on highways is 77,897 CZK.

“The solution leading to a reduction in the number of accidents is the fencing of highways. This can eliminate the risk of a collision with animals by up to 90 percent,” says Petr Jedlička from the Czech Office of Insurers.

Due to the high density of the highway network, most accidents occur in the Central Bohemia region. There are 208 cases per year. The most dangerous is the straight section of the D10 highway near Benátek nad Jizerou, which is separated from the field and the forest only by a drainage ditch. D10 near Písková Lhota and also D4 near Mníšek pod Brdy are in a similar situation.

According to the share of accidents involving wild animals, the Zlín region ranks first in the total number of highway accidents, where more than a third of accidents take place in this way. The Zlín Region is followed by the Liberec Region with a share of 33 percent and the Moravian-Silesian Region with 20.4 percent of accidents, according to the analysis.

In addition to autumn, the spring months are also a risk period, which is related to the breeding cycle and increased activity of ungulates. Collisions with deer dominate accidents all year round, and with wild boar in autumn. On roads of lower classes, a car collides with an animal most often in the morning or evening, on the contrary, it is most often at night and in the morning on the highway.