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Commercial vehicle collisions highest in decades: OPP

Operation Safe Driver will target speeding, other risk factors as force reveals commercial collision numbers for 2019.
11/17 transport accident
Crews attend the scene of an overturned transport truck on Highway 11/17 in January. (Ian Kaufman, Tbnewswatch)

ORILLIA, Ont. – Ontario Provincial Police say collisions involving commercial vehicles like transport trucks are a growing safety problem on the province's roadways. The force released numbers this week showing commercial collisions are higher than they’ve been in decades, as it launches a new enforcement campaign.

Last year marked the highest number of collisions and fatalities involving commercial vehicles on OPP-patrolled roads in more than 20 years, the force revealed in a release.

OPP responded to 8,432 collisions last year involving transport trucks and other commercial vehicles, nearly a 10 per cent jump from 2018. Of those, 90 incidents proved fatal, resulting in 96 deaths – up from 62 the previous year – while over a thousand resulted in injuries.

A campaign dubbed Operation Safe Driver will target risk factors for collisions involving commercial vehicles, such as speeding, following too closely, improper lane changes, and driver inattention.

Speeding, which the force linked to about 15 per cent of last year's collisions, will come in for particular attention.

Operation Safe Driver is a continent-wide campaign led by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), a non-profit made up of enforcement officials and industry representatives.




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