The most dangerous provinces to drive in

When it comes to fatalities on the road, Saskatchewan historically—and most likely still—holds the title as Canada’s most dangerous province to drive in.

Over a time period of five years, 13.2 out of every 100,000 people driving in Saskatchewan encounter fatal accidents on the road. This was more than double the national average between the dates of 2011 and 2015 (the latest statistical information available).

Yukon Territories comes in as a close runner up with 12.7 out of 100,000 road users suffering fatally. In third place, Prince Edward Island (PEI) sees 9.1 people out of 100,000 die on their roads.

Saskatchewan

As evidenced by the recent Humboldt tragedy, Saskatchewan transportation authorities attribute the high rates of road fatalities to the limited infrastructure on Prairie roads, a likely similarity in the Yukon and PEI.

Low population provinces have people travelling long distances by vehicle at high-speeds. You’re able to drive for hours without seeing another vehicle.

High-speed crashes become an inevitability when drivers become inattentive on long stretches; they may not slow down at intersections or when approaching blind corners.

According to Maclean’s magazine, the danger inherent to Saskatchewan’s roads is not “new” information.

The year of 2012 saw a peak of 183 road users die in Saskatchewan, which in turn spurred the government to create a Special Committee on Traffic and Safety.

Since then, the province has rolled out several initiatives to try and curb the numbers of deaths in traffic accidents. It put 60 dedicated traffic officers on the road, increased license suspensions and seizures for impaired and distracted drivers, harsher penalties for speeders and launched multiple awareness campaigns, to name a few.

In addition to the high-speed commutes taking place in the province on a daily basis, there are other factors that can make a network of roads dangerous, according to Maclean’s writer Terra Coilfe:

“Human error, misfortune and the long, straight roads that connect the rural pockets of the flat prairie province.”

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Halifax has recently been billed as the top city for traffic collisions (7.9% collision frequency), as per Allstate Insurance Company’s 2017 Safe Driving Study. For every 100 cars in Halifax, 7.9 will encounter a collision. The difference in this city may be the fact that fewer collisions result in a fatality.

Ontario

Ontario is no stranger to collision claims, according to Allstate’s data. Ontario is the only province to report an increase in their collision frequency rate, up nearly 5% since 2016.

Ontario Provincial Police say that one in five fatal collisions in this province are connected to transport trucks in poor operating condition.

The top five provincial regions that saw the highest level of collision increase were those in southern, central and eastern Ontario.