An Internet Database for Damage Patterns caused by Impacts on Animals

More information

Main author

Kruse, A.

Co-Authors

-

Type of media

PDF

Publication type

Lecture

Publication year

-

Publisher

18. EVU Conference, Hinckley

Citation

Kruse, A.: An Internet Database for Damage Patterns caused by Impacts on Animals. 18th EVU Conference, Hinckley (UK) 2009

English, 10 pages, 9 figures, 0 references

According to information from the German Insurance Association (G. d. V.), there are more than
200 000 collisions involving wild animals annually. These might be regarded as minor incidents, usually
resulting in just car damage, but in fact in 2002 twenty-eight people lost their lives in such animalvehicle
accidents. Every year, an estimated 3000 drivers are also, in some cases, badly injured. An
animal-vehicle accident can happen to anyone, no matter how experienced or cautious the driver may
be.
There are numerous methods for avoiding animal-vehicle accidents, but there have been no measures
taken up to date to achieve any lasting effects. Some apparent accidents are, however, not animalvehicle
collisions at all, but instead are actually impacts with other objects caused by the driver
himself. An assessor, who is assigned by the insurer, has to determine if the accident was actually
caused by a wild animal or not. Basic objective criteria are traces of sweat or blood from the animal
and traces of hair on the vehicle. When the cause of the accident cannot be determined, the claim for
the damage to the vehicle will be dismissed. An accident is only treated as an animal-vehicle collision
when traces of sweat and blood are present, and it has been proven on numerous occasions that this
was not actually the case.
Several cases of obvious animal-vehicle accidents have been collected. In cooperation with Christian
Hittinger, who has programmed a database for such cases, there is now a tool available to differentiate
such accidents. By doing this, assessors or other appropriate competent persons are able to correctly
identify the cause of the damage done to the vehicle. Only accidents which have been verified as
animal-vehicle accidents are listed in this database.