Utah
‘It is important for us’: Why Utah developed an app to report roadkill
A graphic exhibiting how the Utah Roadkill Reporter app works. The app, developed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Sources and Utah Division of Transportation, launched on Thursday. (Utah Division of Wildlife Sources)
Estimated learn time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah wildlife officers have obtained practically 5,000 studies of deer collisions within the state this yr alone, in addition to one other 166 reported collisions with elk.
Nevertheless, these numbers are possible low. Utah Division of Wildlife Sources officers consider each figures are probably twice as excessive as a result of most collisions aren’t reported. That would quickly change.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Sources and Utah Division of Transportation launched a brand new app Thursday that enables Utahns to report roadkill that they might stumble over on the roads. The Utah Roadkill Reporter app affords greater than merely reporting roadkill that must be cleaned up, although. It will possibly present helpful knowledge relating to human-wildlife interplay because the state grows, says Blair Stringham, the migration initiative coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Sources.
These interactions are sometimes detrimental as a result of they may end up in property injury or human damage on high of the hurt to wildlife. The estimated price of those collisions varies however rises as much as $138 million yearly, based on the Utah Legislature.
“It will be significant for us to know what number of wildlife-vehicle collisions happen in Utah. This new app will permit us to know precisely when and the place collisions happen, which can assist us determine sizzling spot areas on Utah highways,” Stringham mentioned in a information launch.
Whereas deer and elk account for many reported collisions, the 2 companies word that smaller species like coyotes, rabbits, raccoons and squirrels are additionally steadily hit by autos. There are additionally collisions involving bigger animals like bighorn sheep, black bears, cougars and moose yearly, although that is a bit rarer. There have been practically two dozen reported collisions with moose, based on wildlife officers.
Each UDOT and state wildlife officers have labored up to now on tasks that attempt to eradicate most of these collisions. One of many more moderen examples is a bridge over I-80 in Parleys Canyon that opened in 2018, serving as a wildlife overpass. Utilizing a path digicam, UDOT determined that there were at least 700 animal crossings just last year alone, together with greater than 400 deer that in any other case could have tried to cross the freeway.
Nonetheless, the companies did not actually have concrete knowledge on what number of collisions are on the market due to the numerous unreported collisions. That sparked the thought for the app, which the 2 companies started engaged on two years in the past.
As soon as the app is downloaded, individuals can submit studies relating to the places of animal carcasses on Utah’s roads and highways. The app makes use of GPS monitoring to assist pinpoint the placement of the useless animal, thus figuring out areas the place collisions are taking place essentially the most. State biologists are then in a position to choose up the reported carcass, the place they will determine the species, gender, age and different details about the animal.
Stringham explains that having all of this info makes it attainable to provide you with options that eradicate collisions from taking place in these areas. This might imply new fencing, underpasses, wildlife overpasses or anything that may assist keep away from wildlife collisions. They’re tasks that may probably save human and wildlife lives, and even assist Utahns keep away from the prices of property injury.
“The brand new app will make it simpler for the general public to make use of and can give us extra and higher info to information future mitigation efforts,” provides Matt Howard, a pure useful resource supervisor for UDOT.
The app is offered to obtain without cost from the Google Play retailer or Apple’s App Retailer.
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Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Utah
Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters
WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.
This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.
“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.
On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.
“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.
The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.
“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.
The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.
“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.
The colonel calls it a major step forward.
“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”
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