A new report from Waterloo Regional Police Service shows Cambridge tops the list for the most fatal road accidents in the region and comes in a close second for accidents causing major injuries.
Data presented to the police board during the March 15 meeting, reveals Cambridge has some of the most accident prone roads in the entire region.
Cambridge had a total of four fatal accidents and 22 accidents causing major injuries in 2022. Kitchener was the only other city close with three fatal accidents, 26 causing major injuries.
Police have noticed a decrease in the amount of fatal accidents overall, a decrease of 12 per cent, with 13 incidents in 2022 from 15 the previous year.
"46 per cent of those fatalities were linked to the fatal four, which are speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving or not wearing a seat belt," said staff sergeant Scott Griffiths, from the WRPS traffic services unit.
In 2022, police laid a total of 21,121 road safety charges with 9,442 being fatal four charges.
"Nearly half of every fatality we have are linked to a fatal four offense," Griffiths said. "It cannot be understated that the fatal four are called those for a reason."
The top priorities for police this year are to shift their focus onto the fatal four charges, dangers on rural roads and a crackdown on impaired driving.
There were 896 Impaired driving related charges laid in 2022 with 100 evaluations preformed by Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) roadside.
Griffiths also noted statistics for impaired driving keep increasing, so police plan to ramp up roadside RIDE programs throughout the region and train more officers to become DREs.
Another top priority for 2023 is to make the rural roads a safer place for drivers.
Nearly half of all fatal and major injury accidents happened on rural roads last year and police want to change that.
Griffiths pointed to roadway characteristics and higher speeds that tend to produce more negative outcomes than in the city.
There was a 15 per cent increase in stunt driving charges with a total of 531. Police are expecting this number to climb further, especially in rural areas.
"Where stunt driving used to be more of an anomaly it's starting to become more of an issue," Griffiths said. "As those numbers increase the opportunity for injury and death go up significantly."
Police will be launching several social media campaigns and plan to attend events to spread public awareness about these stats and the dangers of unsafe driving. Griffiths said they have recognized this as being a key factor to help slow the increase in road safety charges.
