According to the most recent Ontario Road Safety Annual Report, there was a total of 35,972 fatal and personal injury collisions in 2016, 439 of which were fatal.
Car accidents are on the rise in various parts of Canada as well.
In British Columbia, distracted driving, in particular, continues to take more lives than impaired driving.
There are a lot of studies out there that reveal more into the why of motor vehicle accidents but what about the where?
Where Do Most Motor Vehicle Accidents Occur?
- Close to Home. Surprisingly enough, most car accidents happen close to home, typically in neighbourhoods. Many different surveys and polls out there continue to show this. A 2002 survey by Progressive Insurance, one of the largest auto insurance companies in the United States at the time of the survey, found that 77% of car accidents occurred fifteen miles or less from home.52%—more than half—occurred five miles or less from home.
These car accidents tend to involve driving into parked cars, backing out of a driveway and hitting another car, and so on.
- Parking Lots. Similar to the accidents mentioned above, parking lots are another common place where a lot of car accidents happen that you wouldn’t necessarily expect. This could be due to two cars hitting each other as they back out or because people drive too fast.
- Rural Roads. A lot of very serious car accidents actually happen on rural roads. There may be several different reasons for this; first, speeding can be common given the lack of policing. Second, rural roads tend to be a lot more dangerous given that they are often winding roads. They may also have more potholes, cracks, and so on due to a the lack of maintenance.These are just a couple of possibilities as to why rural roads often experience a high volume of car accidents.
- Daily Commutes. A lot of car accidents also happen during daily commutes, especially in large metropolitan areas where there is a high volume of traffic. This high volume of traffic leads to a lot of distracted driving as people are typically multitasking during these times.
Contact SG Injury Law at (613) 518-2416 for a free consultation.