WILDLIFE involved in third of collisions according to police report in Spain

ANIMALS on the road were the cause of almost 2,500 traffic accidents in Cataluña so far this year, a rise of 100 per cent since 2010.
According to figures released by the Mossos d’Esquadra, 80 per cent of incidents reported involved wild boar, roe deer or foxes also implicated.
Head of Mossos Traffic in Poniente, Jordi Batista, said ‘the number of accidents due to animal invasion in the road represents 30 per cent of total traffic accidents in Cataluña in 2018’.
He added that the animals ‘usually appear on conventional roads at night, during the spring and autumn, when they go out in search of something to eat’.
While incidents of this sort have increased significantly since 2010, when 1,119 accidents were registered, the number of accidents involving animals ‘decreased compared to 2015’, when there were 4,512 cases, the highest recorded.
Batista added that ‘about 5 per cent of accidents due to animal irruption cause victims, although the majority are not deadly’.
In 2017 four people were killed in accidents of this kind.

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Tara Rippin

Tara Rippin is a reporter for Spain’s largest English-speaking newspaper, Euro Weekly News, and is responsible for the Costa Blanca region.
She has been in journalism for more than 20 years, having worked for local newspapers in the Midlands, UK, before relocating to Spain in 1990.
Since arriving, the mother-of-one has made her home on the Costa Blanca, while spending 18 months at the EWN head office in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.
She loves being part of a community that has a wonderful expat and Spanish mix, and strives to bring the latest and most relevant news to EWN’s loyal and valued readers.

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