I wonder if this isn't a different cause and effect scenario. If everyone in the company knew about the deer horns and believed them to work, they likely wouldn't be taking the precautions they normally did.
Of course they don't work, but I'm wondering if the placebo effect is what caused the accident rate to go up. Or an increase in deer populations that year, or land development, or etc.
But yes, they don't work.
I would suspect that they really are counterproductive. Deer standing peacefully beside a road aren't a problem, deer running across a road to get away from a noise are.
I think it was more a matter of timing. It was in the fall around hunting season when more people are out running around in the bush and deer are on the move.
The whistles were our safety officers idea. The rest of us pretty much knew they were crap. (Or at least some of us did) The safety guy wasn't too sure either but figured they were cheap enough to at least give them a shot.
It didn't help matters that we were operating in an area with a very dense population of deer either. I've personally counted over 80 standing in a field by a road.
I wonder if this isn't a different cause and effect scenario. If everyone in the company knew about the deer horns and believed them to work, they likely wouldn't be taking the precautions they normally did.
Of course they don't work, but I'm wondering if the placebo effect is what caused the accident rate to go up. Or an increase in deer populations that year, or land development, or etc.
But yes, they don't work.
I would suspect that they really are counterproductive. Deer standing peacefully beside a road aren't a problem, deer running across a road to get away from a noise are.
I think it was more a matter of timing. It was in the fall around hunting season when more people are out running around in the bush and deer are on the move.
The whistles were our safety officers idea. The rest of us pretty much knew they were crap. (Or at least some of us did) The safety guy wasn't too sure either but figured they were cheap enough to at least give them a shot.
It didn't help matters that we were operating in an area with a very dense population of deer either. I've personally counted over 80 standing in a field by a road.