The number of collisions Timmins Police has responded to so far this year is up.
Chief John Gauthier ran through the collision statistics at the Timmins Police Services Board's November meeting.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 there have been 238 collisions, which is 23 more than last year during the same timeframe. Including self-reported collisions, the total number is 813, which is 64 more than last year. Thirteen of them involved pedestrians.
During the months being looked at, there was one fatal collision, a pedestrian crash in July. The numbers don't include the fatal crash earlier this week on Highway 101 in South Porcupine.
The report breaks down the details of the collisions, from the time of day they occurred to the day of the week, and more.
“With this data, actually, comes an opportunity for our traffic services sergeant to analyze it and say ‘OK, when’s the best time to actually be doing enforcement?’ You can plan your enforcement around the times for the collisions,” said Gauthier.
He said it's not a big surprise that most of the collisions were January to March when there is snow and ice.
In January there were 157 collisions, with 175 in February and 119 in March.
For times of day, the most collisions happened at 3 p.m. when there were 89. It's followed by 1 p.m. with 77 collisions, and 4 p.m. with 75.
Sunday has the lowest number of crashes with 64. The top days are Wednesday with 141, Thursday with 147, and Friday with 143.
Weather also plays a factor.
On clear days, there were 699 collisions.
“You would think with all of those collisions that that number actually would be reduced and we’d see a spike in either snow, rain, freezing rain, strong wind," said Gauthier. "When...it’s clear, nice days people are driving faster, making bad choices, bad mistakes."
For road conditions, there were the most incidents (377) on dry roads, followed by snow-packed roads with 276 crashes.
The top five intersections for collisions are:
- Algonquin Boulevard East and Highway 655, 12
- Algonquin Boulevard West and Theriault Boulevard, 11
- Riverside Drive and Shirley Street, 10
- Algonquin Boulevard East and Brunette Road, 8
- Algonquin Boulevard East and Mountjoy Street North, 8
