8. Validation of the Long-term Effectiveness of Automatic Deerdeterrent Sound Devices

Despite the high and stable deer population, their habitat is expanding every year, resulting in an annual increase of approximately 10% in collisions with trains. To address this issue, the Railway Technical Research Institute developed a device that automatically emits deer-deterrent sounds combining the deer’s alarm calls to warn others and dog barks that deer dislike from trains within preset sections (Figure 1, “deer-deterrent sound device”). While its effectiveness in preventing collisions with deer had been confirmed, verifying the long-term sustainability of this effect remained a challenge.

From April 2022 to December 2024, a validation test on the sustainability of the effect was conducted over 2 years and 9 months by gradually installing the deer-deterrent sound device on 12 of the 39 operational vehicles running on the target line section. As a result, the number of collisions with deer per thousand kilometers was approximately 0.26 for vehicles without the device and approximately 0.16 for vehicles equipped with the device. This confirmed that the installation of the device leads to a long-term reduction effect of approximately 30 to 40%, which was also verified to be statistically significant (Figure 2).

The deer-deterrent sound device is expected to be an effective long-term measure for reducing collisions between trains and deer.