Auto accidents on rise

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If you want to know what Grand Avenue, 3 p.m. and Friday have in common; look no further than the annual traffic report prepared by the Chatham-Kent Police Service.

Those were the street, time and day upon which you were most likely to be involved in a traffic accident last year.

There were 54 collisions of note along Grand, 47 on Richmond Street, 45 on Keil Drive and 44 on Lacroix Street.

In terms of dangerous intersections, Keil and Richmond topped the list with 19 accidents last year, followed by Lacroix and Richmond with 15. Grand Ave. at Sandys and Keil were next with 13 and 12 accidents respectively, while Lacroix and Park rounded out the top five with 12 as well.

The worst two non-Chatham intersections were Dufferin and McNaughton avenues in Wallaceburg and Mill and Queen streets in Tilbury with six each.

The top reported times of accidents were 2 p.m. (298), 3 p.m. (280) and 11 a.m. (272)

The number of collisions increased as the week progressed from Monday (477) to Friday (569). Sunday was the lowest day with 283.

For the first time since 2010, the number of motor vehicle collisions topped the 2,000 mark.

The 2,004 accidents last year was an increase of 19 from the year before and continued a trend from 1,784 in 2012 to 1,862 in 2013.

The community hasn’t approached the 2,299 high of 2008.

Chatham Mazda from Chatham Voice on Vimeo.

Fatalities dropped from six to five last year and none involved alcohol. The number of accidents involving alcohol dropped from 80 to 68.

Chatham-Kent Police held 140 RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) spot checks last year. Of the 12,352 cars checked, there was only one impaired charge laid.

There were two seven-day licence suspensions and 23 three-day suspensions from the 78 roadside tests conducted.

Cyclists were a bit safer with collisions down from 38 to 35 and collisions with pedestrians dropped by two to 24.

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