At Grillo Law, we always aim to keep our community informed on accidents, road safety changes in the law and accident statistics, to help keep our community safe.

Ontario Road Safety Annual Report

The Ontario Road Safety Annual Reports (ORSAR) is the official report of road safety statistics in Ontario. It presents statistics on injuries, fatalities, and property damage. It also tracks statistics on the type of vehicles involved in accidents, the location of the collisions, and conviction data.

According to the recent ORSAR report, the number of motor vehicle collisions that lead to personal injuries and death in Ontario has been fluctuating over the past few years. The number stood at 38,724 in 2014, which was 4,000 fewer than in 2013. 2015 saw a slight jump to about 40,000 collisions, a figure that dropped to less than 36,000 in 2016.

Toronto Police Service Report

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) released statistics in 2017 suggesting that Toronto roads are getting safer. As of mid-December 2017, there had only been 59 traffic fatalities in the year, as opposed to 77 fatalities by the same time in 2016.

The 77 traffic fatalities reported in Toronto in 2016 were abnormally high and this prompted the Toronto City Council to unveil the Vision Zero road safety plan. The city spent over $80 million in five years to help reduce traffic fatalities.

TPS statistics give evidence that the Vision Zero plan is working because there were only 59 fatalities in Toronto from January to mid-December 2017.

Allstate Canada Safe Driving Study

According to November 2017 Safe Driving Study (SDS) data from Allstate Canada, Ontario’s streets are more dangerous to drive in today. The report found that the frequency of collision claims in the province increased by almost 5% in the 2 year period ending June 2017 when compared to the 2 year period ending June 2015. The report concluded that this is attributed to 8.5% increase in accidents in the Greater Toronto Area.

The study showed that Toronto was the 69th among Canadian cities in terms of accidents reported, with an average of 6.45 accidents for every 100 cars. The Toronto suburbs of Ajax and North York were the worst performing with 7.12 and 7.02 accidents per 100 cars. Brockville, Chelmsford, LaSalle, St. Thomas, Sarnia, Amherstburg, and Belle River had the lowest number of claims.

The study showed that Brockville was the only Toronto suburb to have an increase in collision claims, which stood at 6% higher than in the previous period. Chelmsford led in the decrease in collision claims, with an improvement of 23% from the previous period.

The study found that 16.9% of the accidents occur on Fridays and that the day with the least accidents was Sunday with 10.5% of the reported accidents.

Rear-end collisions are the most common cause of accidents according to the report at 25.17%, confirming that drivers are still driving too close to the vehicles ahead of them. Turning and intersections was the second highest cause of accidents at 23.54% while hitting parked vehicles was third at 13.57%.

Most accidents take place in January, December, and February, which can be explained by the festivities during these months. The safest months to drive in Ontario are May, April, and June.