We all know someone who hit a deer while driving in Arkansas. Deer collisions are a problem here. According to State Farm, we rank 13th in the likelihood of having a deer-related collision.
Why is it that Arkansas is worse off than other states such as Missouri? It's simple; Missouri and other states track the number of deer collisions.
The Arkansas Highway Department does not keep track of this. By paying our taxes, we fund this system. Wouldn't it be nice if they saved us some money in car repairs and insurance premiums? State Farm estimated that the national average repair cost for deer collisions is $3,888. This is a big out-of-pocket expense for drivers even if it is only insurance deductibles which must be met.
It is impossible to eliminate deer collisions, but there are ways to lower the number. If the highway department simply checked a box for every reported deer collision, recorded their locations and entered that information into a database, that data could be sent to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to analyze and compare to their harvest reports.
The Game and Fish Commission often issues extra tags to certain farm areas where deer are overpopulated. With the data from the Highway Department, it could also do this for sections of the highways where large numbers of car-deer collisions have occurred. It could add additional tags or hunting days in areas with higher collision rates to reduce the numbers of deer and also the number of collisions with the animals.
The solution to minimizing deer collisions is simple. What is troubling is that it would be inexpensive for the highway department to record this data and pass it on, but it doesn't. The root of the problem appears to be a lack of communication between the Game and Fish Commission and the Highway Department. If both agencies communicated, they would likely save the people of our state thousands and thousands of dollars. Both agencies are funded by state tax dollars; it seems they should be obligated to find a solution to this obvious problem.
Not only could the Highway Department use the information to design and build better highways, the nearly 400,000 in-state Arkansas hunters could improve highway safety by harvesting more deer in areas where the collisions occur. Given the right information, we can make Arkansas safer, and the meat could go into freezers instead of to the vultures.
Blake Wilkins
Decatur, Arkansas
Editorial on 12/10/2014