Animal accidents
The open landscape of the New Forest where ponies, cattle, donkeys and pigs roam free is one of the distinctive qualities of the National Park. This is one of few areas in England, especially in the busy and developed south, where drivers may come face-to-face with animals on the road day or night.
The highest ever number of deaths recorded was 313 in 1962 and despite greatly increased traffic, this has fallen to less than 100 since 2000. The challenge now is to reduce this even more.
Maps of animal accidents can be downloaded below. These show which roads are worst, primarily because they carry most traffic. Although every animal killed is a great loss to the Forest, and to its owner, the good news is that 2010 had the lowest number of animal deaths (65) since records began in 1956. You can see how the number of accidents each year has changed since 1985 by downloading the data sheet. Of interest here is that the 40mph zone was introduced across the north of the Forest in 1990 and across the south of the Forest in 1992, though the accident data don’t seem to show a direct correlation.
The pony and foal deaths download shows how vulnerable foals are in the summer months.
Related documents
New Forest pony and foal deaths during 2009 (44 KB)
2010 animal accidents map (917 KB)
2009 animal accidents map (676 KB)
2008 animal accidents map (986 KB)
