An alarming number of bears are being killed on highways in Banff National park and in many cases it is the drivers who are to blame.
So far this year, 14 black bears have died after being hit by vehicles in the park.
RCMP and sheriff department officers leave their cars in plain sight at one speed trap and easily find drivers going well over the posted 90 km/h mark.
Officers have run an aggressive enforcement program over the last 2 months.
“One this past weekend who was clocked at 191 km/h, another the previous weekend at 190 km/h, These speeds are ridiculous for this area,” said Banff RCMP Cpl. Chris Blandford.
Blandford says at high speeds those drivers don't have time to react to wildlife running across the highway.
“We have had a number of other strikes this year where bears have run off and we don't know what the outcome is, we weren't able to determine if the bear survived or not, but in the vast majority of collisions when the bear is hit by a vehicle it does not survive,” said Steve Michel from Parks Canada.
Parks Canada says that fences and cattle guards are doing the job of keeping ungulates off the highway but are not working so well for bears that can climb over a fence like it's not even there.
They are now testing an electro mat that works like an electric fence embedded in the road around cattle guards and railway crossings.
Banff National Park gets 3.5 million visitors a year and upwards of 5 million people drive right through with out stopping.
“A lot of people passing through the park treat it like it's a speed way on their way to the cottage, and they just want to get there, but they have to slow down and realize they're in a national park and there's wildlife here,” said Monica Andreef from the Association for Mountain Parks.
Police say they'll continue to enforce the law as long as drivers continue to speed
So far this summer more than 2300 drivers have been charged and 49 of those were clocked doing at least 50 Kilometres over the posted limit.
