The cost of wildlife vehicle collisions

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Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

Wildlife vehicle collisions in 11 Western states cost $1.6 billion a year and $250 million in Utah alone.

And those crashes cause hundreds of human fatalities and tens of thousands of injuries each year in the United States, while killing more than 1 million large mammals.

A recent study looked at hot spots, or ideal locations for investments in overpass or underpass structures, as well as fencing, to help alleviate the problem.

The study is one of the first of its kind to embrace an approach integrating ecological, economic and safety considerations to identify the sections of highway across the West that are best served by future wildlife crossings.

According to the research, there were 23,600 wildlife vehicle collisions in Utah between 2011 and 2020.

Does chaos in the House make a shutdown more likely?

Uncertainty reigns in the U.S. House as the ouster of Kevin McCarthy puts the country on a trajectory that could lead to another government shutdown in November when Saturday's short-term spending bill expires.

“We have 45 days,” Utah Republican Rep. Blake Moore told the Deseret News Wednesday. “And we’re going to be staring down another shutdown here very soon because we just keep striving for attention-getting measures instead of actually doing our work.”

And this outcome will become all but inevitable, according to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, unless the Senate jump starts its work on annual spending bills — which it so far hasn’t done.

On Tuesday, a group of GOP holdouts led by Florida firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz succeeded in vacating the speaker’s chair, removing House Speaker McCarthy from his leadership position and throwing an already strained appropriations schedule into chaos.

“We were planning to have four bills on the floor and passed in those two weeks. Now we just lost two weeks of a 45 day period. And that’s not anybody’s fault other than Matt Gaetz,” Moore said. “But guess what? He benefits when he can obstruct and then complain that it doesn’t get done on time. And so this shell game is going to continue on over these next 45 days.”

Read more about how the vote to elect a new speaker will delay spending bills ahead of the Nov. 17 deadline.

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Photo of the Week

Stunning fall leaves up Millcreek Canyon. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

See our photo gallery of fall colors along the Wasatch Front here.