VIDEO: Colorado Has a Chance to Save Lives and Money with More Wildlife Crossings
Every year in Colorado, wildlife-vehicle collisions change lives in an instant. These crashes injure drivers and passengers, devastate families, and take a heavy toll on wildlife and communities. But they are preventable, and we know what works: wildlife crossings.
The video below shares the powerful stories of three Coloradans whose lives were forever altered by crashes with wildlife.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages discusses plans with Aspen
Thirty percent of recent vehicle crashes in the Roaring Fork Valley were due to wildlife-vehicle collisions, resulting in an estimated $5.2 million of damage.
That’s according to 2012 to 2021 data presented in Monday’s Aspen City Council Work Session by Roaring Fork Safe Passages, a local nonprofit committed to mitigating wildlife-vehicle collision risk through infrastructure projects on Colorado Highways 82 and 133.
“There’s consequences for drivers,” Julia Kintsch, senior ecologist at Denver’s ECO-Resolutions who was contracted by Roaring Fork Safe Passages, said of the impact of wildlife collisions. “There’s consequences for wildlife mortality and wildlife connectivity.”
We Need to Get Going on Hwy 92 Wildlife Crossings
Over the last two weeks I have counted eight dead elk or deer along Highway 82 between Snowmass Canyon and the Aspen airport — it is heartbreaking. This means there are at least eight people who have been traumatized with wrecked vehicles and I hope no physical injuries.