Full moon danger: 50% more collisions with wildlife vehicles on moonlit nights

The moon’s influence on our planet, culture, and society goes beyond influencing the tides. A recent study by Texas A&M University published in the journal Transportation Research Part D shows that collisions with wildlife vehicles increase by 45.8% during full moons.

Kentaro Iio, a former Texas A&M student, and Dr. Dominic Lord, a professor in the Zachry School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, collected 10 years of crash data in Texas and determined the nature of full-moon and new-moon nights and their corresponding wildlife. We compared. -Vehicle collision. No significant differences were found in non-wildlife collisions over the same time period.

This study highlights the importance of increasing driver caution, especially during bright nights. Researchers say it could also help inform transportation policies and infrastructure development that require better safety measures.

“We compared a really dark night with no moonlight (new moon) to a really dark night with full moon illumination,” Iio said. “If you include other moon phases in your analysis, they will appear on the horizon at different times each day, making it more difficult to compare true identity.”

Previous studies conducted around the world, including regions of Spain, Canada and Lithuania, have found a similar trend of increased collisions during full moons. Each used different methods and proposed many possible reasons for the results. Iio and Lord believe a combination of factors could be contributing to the increase. Factors such as driver fatigue and increased wildlife activity at night may require further research by traffic and animal behavior experts.

“The lighting is better, but it’s still nighttime,” Lord said. “When you drive at night, the lighting from different angles doesn’t seem as great as it does during the day.”

The study divided the data into different regions of Texas to emphasize rural and urban areas. The Texas metropolitan area was the only region with a relatively lower risk of collision during a full moon, but the difference was not statistically significant. The metropolitan area consists of 10 counties, from Llano to San Marcos and from La Grange to Georgetown.

Regions were divided based on economic regions defined by the Texas Comptroller. In the High Plains, South Texas, Central Texas, and Upper East regions, wildlife-vehicle collision rates increased significantly on full moon nights, ranging from 57.8% to 125%. The High Plains region primarily covers the Texas Panhandle.

“The full moon-related collision rate tends to be higher in rural areas than in urban areas,” Iio said.

Lord further explained that lower urban wildlife densities and urban light pollution may also contribute to poorer outcomes in these areas. The effect of lunar illumination can be diminished in bright urban areas.

Identification of wildlife species was beyond the scope of this study. This study also did not take into account variations in illumination intensity over the study period in the analyzed geographical area. Future research may explain these gaps as higher-resolution data becomes available on regional traffic, illuminance, and wildlife species identification.

Potential improvements such as increased lighting in rural areas, the addition of wildlife warning reflectors along rural highways, and increased emergency services at certain nights will also be further considered and researched by scientific, engineering and economic experts. may be required.