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Should you rescue ducklings on the highway? Most times no, experts say

Ducklings try to cross race course during IndyCar practice. (Screengrab/YouTube)

The urge to protect and rescue the helpless is ingrained in most human beings, so you can understand the reflex some motorists have to stop when they see some confused waterfowl on a busy roadway.

But should they? The answer experts give is no in most instances.

Toronto police actually closed a section of the busy Don Valley Parkway, the main artery into downtown, last Sunday to allow a Canada goose and her goslings to cross the expressway. The incident produced a couple of humorous tweets from the department.

Police spokeswoman Const. Caroline de Kloet said the the decision to act as wildlife crossing guards for the little critters likely stemmed from concern for their safety and the potential mayhem of drivers moving at freeway speeds trying to dodge the gaggle of birds. Or, god forbid, someone stops.

The consequences of that were demonstrated in Quebec five years ago when a woman stopped her car in the left-hand lane of a provincial highway to try to corral some motherless ducklings. A motorcycle carrying a man and his teenage daughter slammed into the back of her car, killing both riders.

Emma Czornobaj was convicted of criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing death. She was given a 90-day jail sentenced to be served on weekends but has filed an appeal.

In a chilling echo of the fatal 2010 Quebec incident, Vancouver radio traffic reports this week mentioned someone stopping on a major suburban artery to gather up orphaned ducklings after their mother was hit.

Wildlife on Canadian roads are a fact of life. A 2012 report prepared for the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) estimated the costs of collisions with animals are as high as $200 million a year in Canada. Hitting something big, like a deer, elk or moose, substantially increases the risk of injury and death.

The report said the trend towards vehicle collisions with large wildlife has been rising, the result of an increase in animal populations and higher traffic volumes.

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The Ontario Provincial Police reports an average of more than 11,000 collisions annually. So far this year, it’s investigated 2,333, Sgt. Peter Leon told Yahoo Canada News.

British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation receives reports of about 6,100 dead animals cleared from numbered highways by road-maintenance crews each year, based on a 2010 report covering 1988 to 2007. It covers anything larger than a fox, said biologist Gayle Hesse, co-ordinator of the non-profit B.C. Wildlife Collision Prevention Program.

Numbers of wildlife killed by vehicles may be underestimated

However, the government estimates as may as 18,000 more animals are hit each year but are either injured and die elsewhere or are punted off the road, their carcasses going unrecovered.

“It’s a pretty significant under-reporting issue and that’s not just for B.C.,” Hesse observed. “B.C. has one of the best systems for reporting on wildlife collisions in the world.”

Collisions in B.C. injure about 450 people each year and cause five deaths, she said.

“It’s a significant safety issue for sure,” said Hesse.

Wildlife of all kinds love roads, she explained. Rights of way feature easily accessible forage, often tasty road salt residue and open sight lines to spot predators, making it easier to dash back into the forest a few steps away.

“Lots of animals really like the roadside area and people really need to drive expecting to see animals,” she said. “Don’t be surprised that they’re there. They really like it there.”

Roads can also bisect habitat. For instance, Hesse got a call this time last year about geese crossing a well-traveled country road that runs east of Vancouver along the Canada-U.S. boarder. No respecters of international borders, the birds spent time moving between wetlands on the U.S. side and farmland on the Canadian side.

Roads along the border are dotted with signs warning motorists about the possibility of wildlife crossing, said Cpl. Ronda Remple of B.C. RCMP’s traffic services section.

“I think drivers sometimes disregard the importance of those signs and actually being aware that could be an area where you might have to make a sudden stop,” she told Yahoo Canada News.

“I personally have been driving behind somebody who has stopped suddenly for an animal.”

The problem, experts say, is that drivers often don’t think what impact (perhaps literally) their decision to stop has on fellow motorists.

“I think anytime you get out of your vehicle you’re putting yourself at risk,” said Remple. “And often when people get out of their cars they leave their cars in the roadway, which is a greater risk.”

Some don’t bother to put on their emergency flashers or consider whether they’re on a hill or curve, giving other drivers little time to react, which may have been a factor in the infamous Quebec case, she said.

When is it OK to stop?

There are situations where it’s probably OK to stop, such as on a neighbourhood street or less-traveled country road. Leon remembers stopping his cruiser on the lane leading to his home and helping a snapping turtle across the road.

“I activated the emergency equipment, went to the back, got my shovel out, got him onto the shovel and very easily brought him over to the edge of the road,” he said.

“Would I have done the same thing on Highway 11 or Highway 400? Not likely.”

Police appreciate that people stop with the best of intentions but if the rescue attempt results in an accident, the Good Samaritan could be liable to charges.

“Ultimately you just need to continue on and you’re not taking a human life with you as well,” said Remple.

It may, sadly, also mean running over the little birds rather than swerving and potentially triggering an accident, Leon added.

“It’s when good-hearted citizens put themselves and perhaps others into harm’s way, that’s when we see tragedy unfortunately unfold,” she said.

About the only time you’re obliged to pull over is if you hit a large animal and it’s still in the road.

A B.C. court last year found a driver liable after he hit a moose with his pickup truck on a northern B.C. road in 2011 and drove away. Another motorist hit the carcass in the road, then collided with an oncoming vehicle, causing injuries.

Hesse and police the best thing drivers can do to avoid wildlife danger is to look further down the road and scan the shoulders, especially at dusk and before dawn and during the highest-risk seasons in late spring and fall.

If you feel you must intervene with an animal in trouble, said Hesse, “my advice for those particular situations would be to get to a safe place to stop and then phone someone whose job it is to deal with road safety, whether that be conservation officers, the SPCA or someone who’s actually trained to try and deal with wild animals.”