Motor vehicle collisions down from last year

Motor vehicle collisions in the city are down slightly over this time last year, according to statistics released by Greater Sudbury Police.

The police service, in partnership with Accident Support Services International (Collision Reporting Centre), has released its six-month collision report.

Data from January to June 30 of this year has been collected and analyzed on various collision types such as vehicle collisions, pedestrian collisions, collisions involving drugs or alcohol and snow vehicle collisions.

There were 1,902 motor vehicle collisions (down 125 from the same time in 2014). Slightly more than half of the collisions were self-reporting, and the remainder were on-scene investigations.

From the on-scene collision investigations, 70.9 per cent were property damage only, and 27.5 per cent involved personal injury.

The majority of collisions occurred during January and February, while the month with the least was June.

Collisions occur mostly during the week (Monday through Friday), with Friday having the most occurrences, between 12-5 p.m., with most collisions occurring at 3 p.m.

When the majority of collisions occurred, the weather condition was clear, the vehicles were travelling forward and the collision type was a rear end.

Surprisingly, snow, freezing rain and fog were noted as the environmental conditions during a minimal amount of the total number of collisions.

This finding supports the inclination that drivers appear to be doing an excellent job of driving according to conditions during cold, bad weather days; however, with most events being rear-end type collisions, drivers are still being careless or aggressive, or are driving while distracted.

From January until the end of June, there were 16 collisions involving pedestrians, down from 34 during the same period last year and May continues to be the top month. Pedestrian collisions occurred between 8-9 a.m. and from 5-7 p.m., with Tuesday having the most occurrences.

In nearly half of pedestrian collisions, the drivers were not at fault, while in five of these incidents the driver failed to yield the right away to the pedestrian.

Unfortunately, eight of the pedestrian collisions could have been prevented because people decided to cross at intersections against the light, tried to cross busy roadways with no right of way or walked out from behind parked cars.

From January to June 30, 2015, there were 32 collisions which involved impairment by either drugs or alcohol in drivers, two less than last year. The majority of collisions involving drugs or alcohol occurred during the weekend.

Lastly, there were seven collision involving cyclists, six collisions involving motorized snow vehicles and four collisions involving snowplows.

Total collisions: 1,902

Total vehicles involved: 3,381
Self-reported collisions: 1,085
Fatal collisions: 1
Non-Fatal injury: 224