THUNDER BAY – If you got into a car crash last year in the city, there's a good chance it was at an intersection along the Harbour Expressway.
Traffic statistics compiled by the Thunder Bay Police Service, obtained on Thursday, showed three of the most four dangerous intersections in the city are along Harbour.
The most frequent intersection for collisions was at Harbour and Balmoral Street, where there were 23 reported crashes in 2015, resulting in nine injuries and more than $23,000 in estimated damage.
That was followed by the next intersection to the west, where 18 collisions were reported at Golf Links Road and Harbour. That is five fewer than 2014, when that intersection had the most.
Intersections by crashes:
Intersection | No. of crashes | Damage estimate |
Balmoral/ Harbour | 23 | $23,250 |
Golf Links/ Harbour | 18 | $6,600 |
Arthur / James | 17 | $19,700 |
Harbour/ Memorial | 15 | $14,700 |
Central/ Memorial | 13 | $10,300 |
Golf Link/ Oliver | 12 | $3,200 |
Balmoral/ Oliver | 12 | $15,800 |
Fort William/ Isabel | 12 | $1,000 |
High/ Memorial | 11 | $14,300 |
Junot/ Red River | 10 | $8,400 |
11th/ Memorial | 10 | $5,000 |
Arthur Street and James Street had the third most crashes with 17, two more than Harbour and Memorial Avenue at 15. That was the first of three appearances in the top-10 for Memorial Avenue, which had the fifth most at Central Avenue with 13 and the ninth most at the High Street intersection with 11.
In 2015, there were 3,416 reported collisions on city streets, down about 300 from the year before. Those collisions resulted in 95 injuries.
There were three fatal collisions in 2015. In February An Oliver Road crash killed Natasha Sue Campbell and Zachary Everitt Hibers, both 22. In In July, 91-year-old Jack Young died when he collided with the side of a city bus he had just exited after falling unconscious. In October, 20-year-old Stacy "JR" Kejick was killed in an early morning collision at the intersection of Court and Wilson streets.
The most collisions occurred during the winter months of the year with January, February and December, which all had more than 300 each month, having the three highest numbers. March and November also had high rates of crashes, with 295 and 294 respectively.
Late afternoon rush hour appeared to be the most common time to get into a crash with between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. the highest reported part of the day.
For days of the week, 589 crashes happened on Thursdays with Wednesdays and Fridays showing the second highest number of incidents.