Tollway Staff Hopes Whistles Ward Off Deer

Orange County toll road officials are whistling while they drive, but not for amusement.

They are hoping to warn away deer, a dozen of which have been killed by fast-moving traffic since the Eastern toll road opened seven months ago.

So the Transportation Corridor Agencies purchased 100 Deer Alert whistles from a specialty shop at South Coast Plaza. Concerned staffers have taken about 60 whistles so far to install on their work vehicles and personal cars.

“People here have been very upset by the deaths,” spokeswoman Lisa Telles said. “It seems like something that we can do.”

Besides the deer, at least 18 animals, including coyotes, bobcats and a mountain lion, have died on the road.

The whistles are supposed to start working at 30 mph. Air forced through small funnels emit a high-pitched whine audible to deer and other animals. But pets traveling inside the car are not supposed to be very bothered by the noise, according to the manufacturer.

In other parts of the country where tangling with wildlife on the highways is commonplace, whistles have been used for at least a decade. How well they work, though, is disputed by some research, including a University of Wisconsin study that found deer could not hear them from even 10 feet away. Toll road officials admit they have done no independent study on whether they work.

“It’s just something else to try. We’re raising fences. We’re talking about adding barbed wire,” Telles said. “No one can say if you do x we can guarantee you won’t have this problem, but we think this might help.”

Joanna Leonard, an assistant manager at the Brookstone Co. store where the whistles were purchased, said they usually sell the $15 whistle to hunters or people who spend a lot of time in the mountains.

“We sell a considerable amount considering it’s a rather strange item,” she said. Toll road officials said they got a 10% discount for ordering in bulk and already have placed a second order for 75 more. Some deer whistles available on the Internet sell for as low as $5.95 each.

The whistles are part of a larger ongoing campaign to halt the wildlife deaths. Already, about $250,000 has been spent to strengthen fencing along a 6 1/2-mile stretch of road where 12 animals were killed in the first three weeks the road was open.

Nearly 11,000 cars a day use the Eastern toll road and the connecting Foothill toll road. The 17-mile Eastern, which has five animal undercrossings, bisects a 37,000-acre wildlife preserve created to protect rare animals and plants.

Elisabeth Brown, president of the environmental group Laguna Greenbelt and a vocal toll road opponent, said she believes the whistles are a good idea. Brown said she installed whistles on a car she drove for more than a decade.

“The deer hear them,” Brown said. “It’s a question whether or not they make the connection and run away, but it’s a start. It’d be great if they could give them out when people buy transponders,” the devices placed on windshields that automatically debit toll road accounts.

Telles said she wasn’t sure whether they planned to make the whistles available to board members and said no plans were currently underway to provide whistles to regular toll road users.

While Brown agreed with toll road officials about the whistles, she said she disagreed with the idea that there is no solution to the problem.

“If you don’t put roads through deer areas, this won’t happen,” she said. “There’s your guarantee.”