Romania. A1 highway Sibiu-Orastie. 2 bears killed in 2 different car accidents over the past 3 days. This pulls an alarm signal about the necessity to take measures for safe crossing for wildlife in biodiversity-rich Carpathians.

On the night of Friday, August 17th 2018, a van deadly hit an adult bear on Romania's A1 highway. Two nights after, on Sunday, Agust 19th 2018, on the same highway a bear cub died in a collision with a car. Bear sightings are frequent in the area, even mothers with cubs have been spotted crossing the highway earlier this year.

Authorities reacted after the two accidents proposing measures such as: installing warning traffic signs, attracting bears back into the forest and planning to install electric fencing.

The solutions proposed by authorities manage to keep the bears away from the highway or to keep the drivers safe, but they do not fully consider the safe crossing of animals and do not ensure ecosystem connectivity. This is where Transgreen-developed solutions come into action.

Transgreen brings together experts from all sides of the problem - the transport side, the nature side - in order to come up with time- and cost- efficient solutions that ensure maximum safety for both humans and wildlife. Although A1 highway is not one of the project's pilot areas, it does have similar biodiversity, landscape and traffic conditions, and the replicable solutions of Transgreen can be adapted to the specific of this area in question.

Photos: Bear accidents on highway crossing ecological corridors

Bear killed by van on Friday night. Photo source: www.novatv.ro

Bear cub killed by car on Sunday night. Photo source: www.alba24.ro