As I'm sure everyone knows, roadkill is a rather serious problem. I always cringe whenever I see a dead animal on the side of the road or right in the middle of it, because I know that someone ran it over with their car. It's really not the animal's fault they ran into the road; after all, we did put the road where their habitat used to be. And I would like to think that roadkill isn't really our fault either. Sometimes we don't have a choice but to run a poor animal over because they surprised us. But accidents like that not only kill the animal, but can sometimes kill us.

Here are some statistics in regards to roadkill, specifically deer, in Michigan:

40% of all car-deer crashes happen from October through December

In 2015, there were 1,621 reports of car-deer accidents

An average crash causes $2,100 in damage

An average of 10 people die each year on Michigan roads in car-deer crashes

If that's just with deer, imagine the stats for other animals. While this all seems bad, there are ways to prevent roadkill. According to the website Featured Creature, here are a few ways:

1. Animal Bridges

A bridge specifically for animal use! If an animal wanted to stop and rest for a bit, it wouldn't have to do it in the middle of the road, but on the bridge, surrounded by plants instead of fast-moving vehicles.

2. Animal Tunnels

If some animals won't go over, they can go under. Some might even prefer a tunnel to a bridge anyway.

3. Solar-Powered Alert Panels

This may not be a thing yet, but the idea of it sounds good. It's called Zerokill, and when an animal comes close to the road, it beams a light onto the road to warn an approaching motorist. Zerokill also the car's headlights, which will light up the area near where the animal is to warn them. Evidently animals are sensitive to light.

I'm sure there are more things we can do in order to prevent the disasters of roadkill. If you have any other ideas, please comment and share below. If we save animals, we can also save humans.

Information found here:

http://www.petoskeynews.com/featured-pnr/rules-of-the-road-kill/article_4638d172-655b-54b0-8830-ab3a9c440804.html

https://featuredcreature.com/5-scientific-solutions-to-preventing-or-reducing-roadkill/