By Don Corrigan
Missourians are treated daily to dozens of smashed turtles on Hwy 367, dozens of smashed armadillos on Hwy 100, and dozens of bloated raccoon and deer on Hwy 50. And don’t forget a few dead skunks in the middle of the road – everywhere!
Those skunks are stinkin’ to high heaven, just like Missouri policy and resolve to do something about all this highway carnage. Of course, even worse is the increasing number of roadway memorials marking the human highway death toll.
Before we go on a nadering nabob of negativity rant, though, let’s highlight a bright spot in the midst of all the darkness. MoDot just began taking advantage of the Biden Administration Infrastructure Bill to add some animal safety measures to new roadway barrier installations.
Jack Suntrup of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported that Missouri is using some infrastructure money approved by Congress in 2021 for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
The program is meant to protect the public – and wildlife – from all the death and destruction where the rubber and animals hit the road. Before “fiscal conservatives” grouse about spending federal money on useless animals, let them think again.
Human vehicle crashes with wildlife cause injuries, death, funeral expenses, and jacked-up auto insurance rates for the rest of us roadway survivors. It’s not a very scenic or pretty highway picture!
An analysis by State Farm Insurance, cited in the Post, says Missouri is a high-risk state” estimating a 1 in 76 chance for an animal-involved crash claims by motorists in the Show-Me State.
Other states have much better statistics in this regard with their own wildlife crossings programs that have been underway for years. One of those states is in the land of “fruit and nuts” (where else?) California.
California has built very elaborate animal crossings both over and under their many highways crisscrossing the state of 40 million people and many more animals. Some of this is documented in American Roadkill: The Animal Victims of Our Busy Highways, a book by McFarland Publishers.
America Roadkill documents what is happening with possums, raccoons, turtles, deer, moose, panthers and more on the highways across the country. Animals in Missouri might be wise to hitch a ride to some other locales.
A bright spot in California, cited in the roadkill book, notes the success of installing large pipes under highways that animals use to get to the other side of multi-lane highways that are otherwise unable to be traversed.
Cameras installed by wildlife authorities capture a coyote cajoling a badger to follow him through one of the animal safety pipes under a busy thoroughfare. As American Roadkill notes, the two buddies head down the tunnel and avoid becoming highway carnage.
Of course, some humans impacted by injuries or deaths from highway incidents may not have a lot of patience for cute stories about animals finding a safe way through the maze of America’s highways.
But as some animal ethicists in the Roadkill book note, if we can get people to start caring about other creatures maimed and killed on highways – people may just start feeling a little more compassion for humans.
When it comes to humans and highway mayhem, out-of-site is out-of-mind. We clean up the mess, and the traffic flow starts up again, and we go about our business. It’s just a headline on the back pages of the newspaper.
However, with turtles, raccoons, deer, and armadillos – the mess usually lasts longer. The carnage is more visible. Most people have lost any compassion for the poor creatures.
If we started paying more attention – and find a little compassion – we just might make life better and safer for all of life on this car-culture planet.
Environmental Echo 