THUNDER BAY – The number of fatal crashes on Northwestern Ontario highways nearly tripled during the first seven months of this year compared to 2016.
The Ontario Provincial Police responded to 11 crashes where 13 people were killed from Jan. 1 to July 31, spiking from four during the same period in the previous year.
“The overall collisions are relatively stable but it’s just this year, when we’ve had a serious collision, unfortunately, it’s been tragic where we’ve had people killed,” Sgt. Ken Mantey said.
“The common factor is they’ve all been on provincial highways, the vast majority are during the day in clear, dry, good driving conditions.”
Of those 11 incidents, 90 per cent of them happened when environmental conditions were deemed to be clear and road conditions were not identified as a factor in any of them.
Drivers might be more attentive during adverse conditions, Mantey said.
“When it’s raining or snowing and road conditions aren’t the greatest, you’re concentrating on your driving and we’re not seeing the collisions we see when it’s a day where the weather is nice and visibility is good,” Mantey said.
Investigations have determined that more than 70 per cent of the fatal crashes took place between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. with 55 per cent involving some form of driver inattention.
As well, two involved alcohol, including the most recent incident when a motorcyclist was killed Monday night in a collision at Highway 589 and Kam Current Road involving a pickup truck driven by a 31-year-old man who is charged with impaired operation of a vehicle causing death.
It’s still two too many, Mantey said, adding provincial police are still nabbing impaired drivers during traffic stops throughout the region.
“Any one of those could have been a much different result if they hadn’t been taken off the road at that time,” Mantey said.
Speed was identified as a factor – not necessarily the only factor – in 27 per cent of the incidents and a commercial vehicle was involved in 45 per cent of the cases.
“When you get behind the wheel you are responsible not only for our own safety but for everybody’s safety out on the roadways,” Mantey said.
“You’re responsible for all the users. That means other vehicle drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists. Please wear your seatbelts, drive the speed limit, obviously don’t drink and drive and be aware that you need to take other people’s safety as your responsibility.”
