I thought that the suggestion to issue slow orders for the trains when herds were observed to be near the tracks was a reasonable compromise.
Simply dusting ones hands off and blaming it on “overpopulation” is myopic, imo.
I think he was attempting a little dark humor about the herd failing to slow down.
I think so too, although the train crews are limited in what they can do. But let’s subsititute “rock slide” for “herd” and one can be sure that the railroad would implement measures to ensure trains don’t run into fallen rock. Something more could be done I’m sure to protect wildlife without unduly affecting schedules.
I don’t want to sound like a heartless antelope killer, but should we then lower the speed limit on highways during those times as well? I bet a lot more animals are killed on roads than railroads. Would you have trains slow down for a whole winter when the antelope population gets big? Do they slow down only when there’s a herd on the track? Or near the track? Or when there’s a herd in the area? Whether we like it or not, this is Darwin’s theory being played out. The antelpoe that get off the tracks when a train approaches are the ones who live another day.
I am surprised it took so long for someone to trot out the Darwin Award.
I’ve thought about this problem for a grand total of about 15 minutes, so I will be the first one to admit tha
I suspect that some of us find it a little less challenging to be sympathetic to wildlife than others do. “Share the planet” and I’ll leave it at that.
Both of those are decent ideas … and would be low-cost add-ons to having drones generally available on the locomotive or via other ‘resources in the connected environment’ as has been discussed in other contexts.
I would suggest something additional, though: that some combination of animal-rights groups and directed personal funds appeals, perhaps including crowdsourcing, be used to pay the ‘marginal cost’ to provide, maintain, and run it. That might in turn defray some pro rata cost to provide the overall drone infrastructure or ‘tip over’ railroads into adopting some version of the technology.
I am not sure what effects get animals to move. Perhaps dust off the photic drivers from the '60s? Those would work well on herds of ‘graffiti writers’, too… [}:)]
Deer hit my car once. Wife & I were camping in Brown Cty State Park in Indiana, I was driving at about 10 mph on the road from the campground and there was a car in front of me and a ranger behind. Herd of about six deer in field to the left of the road suddenly chose to go to the other side of the road. One struck my car right smack dab in the middle of my door. Door had a significant dent, and the deer was down on the pavement. We and the ranger got out of the vehicles and stood looking at the deer. I think we all knew to be afraid of its hooves. After about three or four minutes, the deer raised its head, looked around, stood up and bolted for the trees. Why a deer can’t see a car, I don’t know.
The other animal, train incident was on a trip on BC Rail. I was allowed to ride up front in the lead RDC with the engineer. After leaving Williams Bay for Prince George, we came upon a black bear on the tracks and it took off toward P.G. at a good clip. But we were doing better than 60 mph and I thought we were going to hit it. But fortunately, for it, and I think us, it veered off the roadbed about 20 feet before impact. Engineer said they don’t get many.
Deer aren’t particularly bright, and they tend to do strange things perhaps driven by endocrine systems I know nothing about.
At one time I lived in an ‘enclave’ that was reached by driving over two very substantial little hills (likely raised in the New Madrid earthquake of 1811). As more houses were built, these summits were ‘cut down’ leaving fairly large “berms” at the crest, diminishing to level and then a slight fill in between. I was driving over the first of these hills when a substantial buck jumped from berm to berm RIGHT above headlight level, without any warning at all – there was nothing, then my windshield was completely full of ruminant – then a second later he was gone. He left small traces of blood and skin in one of the headlight surrounds, it was that close; had I been less than half a second further along he’s have been transversely through the windshield, in what I suspect would have been an unsurvivable accident.
On two occasions I was driving over to the San Fernando Valley from Hollywood in fog, to come suddenly upon some local species of deer trotting along right in front of me. In neither case did I have full time to react and brake to a stop; in both cases I contacted the hindquarters lightly and they fell over … only to get up and keep right along trotting in the road.
Just a theory of mine, but geese are notoriously prone to getting hit by cars, as well.
Try to sneek up on a goose while you are on foot sometime.
I suspect it has something to do with the smooth movement on wheels being deceptive, where they are more accustomed to perceiving threat from an undulating gait.
Working as a boiler inspector in New York’s Hudson valley years ago, I had to inspect the boiler at a rod and gun club near the Connecticut border. On the driveway were 4 big deer, just standing there. I had to honk the horn several times to get them to move. You should have seen the look on the club guy’s face when I told him that I could have bagged one with my 3-cell Maglite.
Piker… [swg]
I’ve gotten four… Plus one we hit with our old rescue truck on the way back from a call.
A contractor was taking our fire department pumper to a test site for its annual pump test.
This is a “custom” apparatus, with the big, boxy cab.
I heard a report of a deer hit, just outside of our district, involving a fire truck, so I moseyed down for a looksee. It was ours.
The truck hit the deer mid-flight (the truck was doing the speed limit - 55). The collision damaged the warning lights above the headlights, the siren (in the grille), a windshield wiper, and even managed to chip the paint on the passenger side A post. The deer was that far off the ground.
I think the damage came in around at almost $10,000…
I have an amusing story along these lines … it just so happens to involve bighorn sheep, too, so not irrelevant…[;)]
Many years ago, my father and I went hunting north of the Brooks Range in Alaska … technically after Dall sheep, but note I said ‘hunting’, not ‘shooting’. The proper technique to stalk these animals is interesting: their eyes are like little 8x telescopes and they’re always carefully watching … in fact they’ll set lookouts to do that job, usually in prominent places. Consequently your recourse to get ‘within range’ is to come from somewhere unexpected – for example, over the top of the sort of mountain associated with bighorn sheep, quietly and from downwind, and perhaps as many as 20 times per day – this being August in the ‘land of the midnight sun’ the day started about 7 and ended with failing light well after midnight.
Now, there was one young ram that the guide and I observed early, right near where we made base camp. He had found a nifty promontory projecting out from a mountainside, where he had but to turn his head to see over 270 degrees of terrain, and – he thought – have plenty of time to detect potential predator approach. In fact he would sit up there cocky as hell, tracking you as you went down the valleys in the morning and came back at night.
By the last day of this my ankles had swollen to where I couldn’t put my hands around either one, and we were returning on ‘short final’ when I realized there was a track up that mountain that would get me between the promontory and the ‘rest of the world’. So I motioned to the guide to follow me – he nervously repeating ‘you’re not going to shoot him, right?’ (apparently a large cross-section of hunters affluent enough to handle a week there are
Don’t know if they actually work - but I have put ‘deer whistles’ on my vehicles for the past 20 years - in driving, mostly at night, I have seen numerous deer both along Interstates and secondary roads.
When I had my 84 Dodg
Lena had Oly put a deer whistle on their car. But he put it on backward and it attracted the deer. [:o)]
I’ve never hit a deer, nor any other on-foot wild animal while driving. Never hit an oil tanker stopped straddling the road either.
I’ve read different things about the deer whistles. Some say they work, some don’t. I also have them on our vehicles. (Saw a deer standing by the road coming home tonight.)
I’ve hit deer and other wild life, both with my vehicle and with the train. The last two vehicle accidents were the deer running into the side of us. One was damage that could be repaired, one totaled the vehicle.
A few years ago on the train, it was a Friday night and three nice bucks were out on the town. They were about to cross the tracks, one stopped the others didn’t.
One afternoon we finished off a deer that had already been hit. It’s back was broken and it couldn’t move it’s hind legs. It was trying to get up and off the tracks and couldn’t. I hated what was about to happen, but I guess it was for the best.
One day leaving town approaching the river, I noticed a dead fawn between the rails on the adjacent track. A vulture was starting to eat it. When we went past it, I noticed mom was still standing off to the side, just watching. We go another mile and there is another dead fawn, with mom still watching and waiting.
We ran over a big turtle. It was high centered on the rail and I figured we might shove it off. Nope. We hit it. The next day coming back I saw it. A Half on each side of the rail. At least it was the first rail of four it needed to cross. It would’ve been worse if it was the last rail on it’s journey.
Jeff
If I recall correctly, we once responded to a car vs deer accident. The young lady was quite upset, of course, and even moreso since she had the whistles…
Been there. Those big snappers are no match for a locomotive.
It’s not like they won’t birth more. I could see if it was like the last herd in Canada but it’s not and antelope are all over the United States as well.