200 people die every year from deer to vehicular collisions in the United States. Students at the University of Missouri, St. Louis thought this was an issue that has flown under the radar too much, and needed a free market solution.
CFACT distributed deer whistles with flyers attached to them to the student population in order to bring awareness to the destruction that car accidents involving deer cause. In addition to the 200 deaths that occur each year, there are 10,000 personal injuries and 1 million car accidents annually.
Deer whistles, when placed near the grill of a car, make a high pitched sound that cannot be heard by humans, but can be heard by deer. While not guaranteed to keep deer from highways, when a car with a deer whistle attached approaches deer, studies have found that deer stop moving towards the roads and freeze until the whistle is out of their ear shot.
“A close friend of mine was seriously injured in a collision with a deer,” senior LaWanda Shepherd said. “This is a great, unique solution to the problem. I never would have thought of this.”
In addition to the human toll the accidents take, collisions cause $1 billion in damage annually. Collegians intended the outreach effort to not only bring awareness to deer collisions, but also open their peers’ minds to free market solutions. You don’t need an EPA mandate to solve an environmental problem.
