As the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) gears up for its Operation Safe Trucking campaign July 15 to 21, it says fatal transport truck collisions have increased in all but two of the OPP’s six regions, with its North East Region marking the highest increase this year at 800 per cent.
The OPP has responded to 33 transport truck-related collisions so far this year, marking a 38 per cent increase when compared to this time last year. Forty one people have died in the crashes.
Year to date fatal transport truck crashes in each region are:
– Central Region had two fatal collisions in both 2017 and 2018;
– fatal collisions were down 60% in North West Region with two in 2018 and five in 2017;
– fatal crashes were up 33.3% in East Region with eight in 2018 and six in 2017;
– North East Region saw the biggest increase of 800%, with nine fatal crashes in 2018 and one in 2017;
– West Region’s 2018 crashes increased by one over 2017’s eight fatal collisions; and
– there were three fatal collissions in 2018 over two in 2017 in the Highway Safety Division region.
“We continue to work diligently with our road safety and trucking industry partners toward our goal of reducing the number of transport truck collisions on our roads,” said OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes.
The OPP has investigated more than 3,600 transport truck-related collisions, which represent 11 per cent of the total number of collisions (34,461).
