Abstract
Animal Vehicle Collision (AVC) is a serious socioeconomic, health and traffic safety issue all over the world. To get an overview on the AVC situation in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano- Alto Adige, the local hunting association started 2012 a systematic data collection. Over the last 7 years (2012-2018) 5987 AVC events (average 855,28 ± 100,17) has been collected. Each event contains information about the name of the driver, the time, date and GPS coordinates of the collision, the involved species and animals sex and age. In 86,5 % of the cases' roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was involved, in 12,3 % red deer (Cervus elaphus). The remaining 1,2 % was formed of individuals of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and small size mammals.
In this work we used the statistical method of Kernel Density Estimation to analyze the spatial distribution of AVC’s on the local street network. Therefore, the GPS data of the collisions was analyzed by KDE+ software. Through this, we found 64 significant ‘hotspots’, road sections were AVC accrue more frequently than expected. According to these analyses, the most dangerous road sections are located on S.P.24 Prato Isarco - Ponte Gardena in the municipality of Castelrotto, on the S.P.50 between Prato allo Stelvio and Glorenza, and on S.P.43 - Passo Furcia in the municipality of Valdaora between Casola e Rio Molino. Vehicle speed, traffic density and the rising number of ungulate densities represent the main drivers causing frequent ACV in the nominated locations This analysis could provide useful information to the local street administration for an effective management of the Animal Vehicle Collision phenomenon in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - Alto Adige.