Private - Public Partnership Will Reduce Fatal Collisions

August 18, 2020, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

I’ve written in the past about the most dangerous intersections in the Region. The Region has gone to great lengths to try and mitigate the dangers of intersections by reducing speeds, changing light timing, installing red light cameras as deterrents to running ambers and reds, and replacing some intersections with roundabouts.

In a new initiative five cities across Canada will be awarded grants with the goal of reducing fatal crashes at the most dangerous of intersections. The grants are being provided by Aviva Canada’s Take Back our Roads Program and use MicroTraffic’s  road safety video analytics system. The entire initiative falls in line with the Vision Zero that I’ve also written about.

MicroTraffic’s technology analyses footage from traffic cameras and using the data it picks out ‘near misses’. The information is then used to help design the changes required in the intersections to mitigate the risks. According to MicroTraffic’s current data 75% of fatal accidents occur in places where one has not occurred in the past.

The Toronto Star reported,

“Road fatalities (are) killing 2,000 people a year in Canada,” he said. “We believe that every single one of those deaths is preventable if we can measure the risk and take actions to prevent the risk.”

Changes to intersections can include approach and turn angle realignment, moving sidewalks to make pedestrians more prominent, adjusting signals and adjusting bike lanes. These changes can reduce the collisions by 80-100%.

The partnership of private industry and government will be an effective mechanism of change in the road safety sector and the data provided will be useful for all municipalities. In this program 5 cities of 100,000 people or more will have ten intersections analyzed.

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.

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