On February 7th 2009 the Canadian Press noted during December and January, provincial police investigated 17,368
collisions - up from 15,047 in the same months last winter and 14,510
two winters ago. The good thing is there were less fatalities than prior years.
Read on:
"I think that we've had an early winter this
year, and since we had snowstorms in January and December, with that,
more collisions," said Sgt. Dave Woodford of the OPP Highway Safety
Division.
While weather has been the strongest factor, it's not
Mother Nature who's actually to blame for the crashes, he said. Some
5,000 vehicles can drive through the same swath of road and yet
suddenly, one car will end up totalled.
"Why is it one? Because
they haven't adjusted to the conditions or they're following too close
and at a higher speed," Woodford said.
"If you all of a sudden
have to put your brakes on, you're either going into the ditch, or into
the vehicle in front of you. And there may be no injuries but it's time
consuming and it's very frustrating to all the other drivers because of
one person."
Despite the increase in crashes, there's actually been a decline in fatalities and personal injury collisions.
Some
47 deaths occurred on OPP-patrolled roads in December and January
compared to 48 in those months last winter 65 two winters ago.
Personal
injury collisions, in which drivers may have suffered anything from a
broken finger nail to serious hospitalization, have also dropped.
Provincial police attended 1,985 of these crashes the previous two
months compared to 2,216 in December and January last winter and 2,435
two winters ago.
Woodford attributed the "encouraging" drops to
strict provincial legislation that targets drivers going 50 kilometres
over the speed limit. Passed in fall 2007, it gives police the power to
impound a vehicle for seven days, issue a minimum $2,000 fine and
suspend a driver's licence for seven days.
In Belleville, Ont.,
tow-truck drivers at Academy Towing Ltd. have definitely noticed a rise
in business. For them, busy season started late November rather than
end of December.
"Most times I find the roads are fairly decent,
they're not that bad," said manager Adam Snyder, who says the majority
of collisions the company tends to are during morning and evening
rush-hour.
"I think it's just a lot of people not paying attention," he said.
He estimated about 70 per cent of the collisions the company sees could have been prevented.
"(The driver) is usually a little shook up, surprised that it happened. And it's usually because of something stupid."
Woodford,
who frequently appears on radio and television talking about road
safety and crashes, said he's starting to feel like a "scratched CD"
repeating the same message. He's hoping the latest statistics will
bring home the dangers and costs to the public.
"(Prognosticating groundhog) Wiarton Willie saw his shadow, so there's still another six weeks to go," he said.
"We've
seen already what the winter has done and with 17,000 collisions
already this year, people have got to start slowing down and driving to
those conditions so we don't have as many in the last two months of the
winter.
"Everybody has to be responsible out there when they're driving."
Referred by Matt Lalande - if you have been involved in a car accident and have been injured bythe fault of another, please contact Matt Lalande at 905-639-8894 or email matt.lalande@haber-lawyer.com
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/02/07/8305401-cp.html