7 Large Animal Crash Mitigation
7.2 Vehicle Based Systems – Deterrents and Vision Enhancement
While vehicle-based systems are not the focus of this report, there are several vehicle-based systems that may be effective in reducing animal vehicle collisions.
According to Cadillac’s website (www.cadillac.com), the Cadillac Night Vision System helps improve driving safety by enhancing the driver’s ability to detect potentially dangerous situations beyond the range of the headlamps. 21 The system seems especially useful for detecting animals and people that are on or beside the roadway. The system uses a Night Vision camera and an adjustable heads-up display. It detects an object’s thermal energy, turns it into a video image and projects it onto your windshield using a heads-up display (HUD). Cadillac’s website provides visual examples of roadway scenes and what you would see with conventional headlamps and with Night Vision. An example from the website is provided in Figure 8. The example shows two deer, visible with the Night Vision system, but not visible with conventional headlamps.
Systems like this one should help rural drivers detect animals on or beside the roadway without taking their eyes off the road. This increased awareness of the animal (or other hazard) should provide the driver with increased time to respond appropriately.
Systems like Night Vision do have the potential to reduce the frequency of rural crashes, especially collisions with animals. However, in order to have a measurable impact on national crash statistics, this type of system would need to have large-scale deployment. For now, it should help Cadillac drivers detect hazards and hopefully avoid crashes.
Vehicle-based deterrents, such a deer whistles, are also available. These deterrents make a high-pitched noise as the vehicle drives down the road. The idea is that the noise will warn the animals of oncoming traffic. Again, to have a measurable impact, these systems would need to have large-scale deployment.
 |
||
| Figure 8: Driver's View Without (top) and With Night Vision (from www.cadillac.com) |