Kangaroos leave drivers hopping mad

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of cars colliding with kangaroos, according to smash repairers in Australia’s south-east and ABC South East NSW.

Glenn Umbers, from Bega in southern New South Wales, said there are a lot of kangaroos on the ground at the moment, ‘There’s been a lot of good seasons and they’ve just bred up and now it’s dry and it’s bringing them out,’ he said.

Glenn said wildlife accidents account for the majority of work at his business, as kangaroo numbers rapidly increase across south east New South Wales.

Paul Millar from Ballarat in Victoria, tells a similar story — dealing with 10 to 15 cars damaged from kangaroo collisions a week, compared to only one or two a few years ago.

‘In a lot of circumstances people are hitting not one but three or four kangaroos at the same time all the way over the car,’ Paul said. He added that kangaroos were increasingly grazing in unusual areas.

A recent analysis by AAMI insurance of 9,000 accident insurance claims found that Canberra recorded the most collisions between motorists and animals for the second consecutive year.

AAMI spokesperson Ashleigh Paterson said that collisions with kangaroos and other wildlife were a common cause of insurance claims in Australia, and that drivers should be especially vigilant in winter.

Official government statistics show that the Australian kangaroo population has almost doubled since 2010 and is close to hitting 50 million.

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