Wellington County OPP released a report of driving trends from 2013 to 2017. (Source: Wellington County OPP)
The data collected was from 2013 to 2017, and was based on collisions reported to the service.
“While these figures do not account for the severity of the collisions or injuries we can accept the fact that with greater speeds come greater impacts and greater impacts contribute to greater losses,” the release read in part.
According to the press release, over half of collisions happen on straight sections of open road, not at intersections.
The leading causes of crashes reported to the service were from excessive speeds, inattentive or distracted driving, or animals. The next three were failing to yield right-of-way, following too closely or losing control.
Five of the six top causes for collision put blame on drivers.
The release called winter driving ‘a perishable skill’ due to the fact that most collisions happen in November, decreasing until the spring.
Another bump follows the spring decrease comes in June, when over-confidence can cause drivers to crash.
“While this may seem contrary to popular belief, remember that during extreme weather events drivers will typically drive slower therefore damages in crashes will be less and anything below $2000 in damages is non-reportable,” police said in the release.
Sundays are the worst days, followed by Monday and Fridays, increasing around 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Low crash numbers at low traffic times, with 3 a.m. seeing very few collisions, showed the correlation between traffic volume and collision numbers, police said in the release.
Over 70 per cent of report collisions occur on clear days.
Source: CTV News