Summary:

Development of road infrastructure and growing number of vehicles on the roads increase the probability of road collisions with wild animals (fallow deer, stag, moose, roe deer or wild boar). In order to improve the safety and decrease the number of wildlife vehicle collisions, it is justifiable to determine the time intervals in which the probability of road accidents involving animals occurs, including seasonal, monthly and daily changes over the whole year. The research comprised an analysis of the structure of road collisions involving wild animals in the years 2001-2011, including the division into seasons, monthly and daily intervals. The data of the number of road traffic collisions involving animals were obtained through an analysis of the data base of Police Headquarters in Warsaw. The identified structure of seasonal and daily road collisions involving animals revealed that the highest number of accidents happened in autumn (29.36%) and spring (26.60%). Almost 10.88% of the analysed accidents happened in October and c.a. 10.62% in May. In the daily structure, the highest probability of collision was after the sunset. These changes are related to daily and seasonal migration due to animal behaviour and the traffic density.