Dangerous deer Dangerous deer ADVERTISING Axis deer are a threat to everyone on the Big Island, not just to ranchers, farmers, gardeners and conservationists. Little-publicized is the threat deer pose to motorists. Deer are mainly nocturnal. They move around and
Dangerous deer
Axis deer are a threat to everyone on the Big Island, not just to ranchers, farmers, gardeners and conservationists. Little-publicized is the threat deer pose to motorists.
Deer are mainly nocturnal. They move around and feed at night, and this activity brings them onto roads and into the path of oncoming vehicles.
State Farm Insurance recently reported that “1.09 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S. between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011.” That means approximately 1 in every 300 persons on the mainland was in a car that hit a deer last year. In some states, the annual likelihood was as high as 1 motorist in 53.
These accidents typically result in damage to the vehicle. All too often the accidents cause injury and sometimes death to the driver or passenger. Apparently, the nation spends more than $1 billion on abating the problem.
The report also notes, “The state in which deer-vehicle collisions are least likely is still Hawaii (1 in 6,267).” With the introduction of axis deer to the Big Island, how long will that safety record last? What will it do to our insurance rates? Having deer to hunt is not worth increasing our driving costs and risking injury or death on the road at night.
Thane Pratt
Volcano
Rich … and blue
In a recent letter, a reader calls Mitt Romney “the quintessential poster boy for the elite class.” The Obama campaign’s constant harping on Romney’s career as a venture capitalist makes the same class warfare argument. This causes me to wonder why being rich is considered an issue for Republican candidates but not for Democrats.
Franklin Roosevelt was a rich New York patrician. John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy were Ivy League trust-funders. John Kerry of the Heinz fortune is rich beyond the dreams of avarice. In politics, it’s OK to be rich as long as you’re a Democrat.
Ray Gagner
Laupahoehoe
Albizias are a threat
As I read the “Puna shortchanged” letter to the editor Sunday, I thought about another area where we are being shortchanged. It is the matter of these Albizia trees — not just because branches from one fell on a power line here in Leilani Estates a week ago, causing power and a phone outage. It is because of the serious problem we have with them here in Puna. They are causing physical injury and property damage.
In addition, they are killing large areas of native vegetation. Some areas are so densely packed with huge trees that make it very expensive and almost impossible to remove them. And yet the problem literally just keeps silently growing!
Something must be done about this. If you live next to an empty lot with these monsters on it, contact your County Council representative or find out who owns it and write them yourself!
Gregg Niceley
Pahoa
