Accidents On Regional Roads – Most Dangerous Times, Locations and Common Causes

January 10, 2023, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

The Region of Waterloo Recently released a summary of all collisions in the Region for 2020. The report is comprehensive and very informative. I’ll be taking excerpts from the report and highlighting facts that can help you make safer decisions when driving in the Region and beyond.

This background information from the report itself places the facts in context:

This annual report is a summary of factors associated with traffic collisions that occurred in 2020. Also presented are comparison factors for the years 2016 to 2020. The information presented in this report is based on vehicle collisions occurring on roads under the jurisdiction of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo or occurring at signalized intersections (including pedestrian and mid-block signals) under the jurisdiction of local municipalities and either investigated by Regional Police or reported at the Collision Reporting Centre. The following local municipalities fall within the Region of Waterloo:

• Township of North Dumfries;

• Township of Wellesley;

• Township of Wilmot;

• Township of Woolwich;

• City of Cambridge;

• City of Kitchener; and

• City of Waterloo

 

The estimated total population within the Region, including post-secondary students, was 623,930 in 2020 estimated from 2020 published statistics. The intention of this report is to provide factual information to those agencies and persons concerned with the safety of the roadway transportation system within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Traffic collisions frequently involve complex interactions between human behaviour, vehicle characteristics, and environmental conditions. The factor or factors responsible for causing a collision are not always the most obvious nor are they always readily apparent. Caution should be exercised in drawing conclusions from the statistics presented in this report and conclusions should be drawn only with appropriate qualifications and supportive information. The arrival of COVID-19 in January 2020 resulted in a dramatic decrease in motor-vehicle volumes on Regional roads due to the implementation of widespread public safety measures. 

Traffic volumes were observed to be reduced by approximately 30%. As a result, collisions in 2020 also decreased.

The long-term trend in the Region is a steady decrease in collisions from the recorded period 1998-2020 with about 12 collisions per 1000 per year in 2019. The numbers for 202 were highly skewed due to the pandemic restrictions.

The Region has far fewer collisions than the provincial average as well – the provincial average number of collisions is steadily at least 5 points higher than in the Region.

Accident Types and Facts 2016-2020

• The most dangerous time of day to be driving is 5 pm. The most dangerous month is February.
• Rear-end collisions are the most common collisions with almost 11,000 accidents,
• Pedestrian strikes have the highest injury percentage. 92% of pedestrian strikes resulted in personal injury or fatality
• 25% of all collisions occurred where there was no traffic control (signs or lights)
• 47% of collisions occurred at locations with traffic signals
• Between 2 and 9 people died as a result of car crashes annually. This number includes drivers, occupants, pedestrians and cyclists.
• Speeding on Regional roads does NOT appear to be a significant cause of collisions
• Driving too close is a significant contributor to the number of crashes
• The number of impaired drivers involved in driving collisions continues to decrease from 1998-2020
   

We will continue to highlight important portions of the report in the coming weeks.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.