Wildlife Accident Reporting: A fundamental element in B.C.’s mitigation efforts

Wildlife-related motor vehicle accidents are becoming an increasingly significant
environmental and public relations problem for transportation agencies. Nationally,
growing public expectations for motorist safety and the protection of endangered
species, as well as the increasing political influence of wildlife advocacy organizations,
are forcing transportation officials to address the wildlife accident situation.

Without fundamental, long-term information on wildlife accident types, locations and
trends, transportation officials can not avoid the risk of marginal, ad hoc decisions
regarding accident mitigation efforts. At present, only British Columbia has a
comprehensive, province-wide system for reporting and analyzing highway-related
wildlife accidents.

Since 1978, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation (BCMoT) has used its
Wildlife Accident Reporting System (WARS) to systematically record the location,
number and type of wildlife accidents reported by its Maintenance Contractors. The
WARS database contains long-term wildlife-related accident records that cannot be
assembled or extrapolated from any other information sources.