Hitting a wild animal as you speed down the highway can be a horrifying moment.
A new report from the UC Davis Road Ecology Center says the Bay Area is rampant with wildlife danger zones.
According to the report, drivers are most likely to hit a deer on Interstate 280 along the Peninsula. It's the number one crash spot and hot spot for roadkill.
The study is crunching data provided by hundreds of volunteers who enter information into the California Road Kill Observation System, which has documented more that 450 species of animals killed over the past seven years.
Using a year of CHP and Caltrans data, UC Davis researchers say out of 700,000 crashes, 6,000 involved wildlife.
Volunteer Alicia Falsetto was aghast at one sighting of a dead animal on the side of the freeway.
"I was driving on 280 and saw half of a coyote on the shoulder, and I couldn't see the other half, and I thought that's enough," Falsetto said.
Local
Falsetto is hoping the information in the study will help convince Caltrans to improve fencing and provide underpasses or overpasses to protect wildlife from deadly crossings.
"It's heart-wrenching; its horrible," Falsetto said.
