Fatal collisions in Edmonton on the rise, experts say multiple factors at play
CBC
In 2020, the City of Edmonton recorded 12 fatalities as a result of traffic collisions in Alberta's capital. Since then, traffic collision fatalities in the city have climbed, rivalling numbers recorded nearly a decade ago.
Supt. Angela Kemp, with the Edmonton Police Service's operational support division, recently spoke to CBC News about the increase in traffic deaths over the past two years.
“A lot of speeding, a lot of traffic violations and a lot of just reckless driving that we're seeing all over the streets,” she said.
Last year, police recorded a total of 26 traffic-related deaths. That’s a sharp increase from the pandemic years. In 2020, the city recorded 12 deaths, in 2021 there were 16 and in 2022 there were 14.
So far this year, traffic collisions have caused 29 fatalities, according to EPS. Police said about 45 per cent of those involved speeding.
“It doesn't seem to matter what type of season it is, if it's summer or winter, we're seeing it on a regular basis," Kemp said.
She said the reduction of some traffic violation mechanisms around the city hasn’t really incentivized drivers to be as responsible.
This summer, the City of Edmonton pulled photo radar technology from multiple school and playground zones. That came after the province announced it would scale back photo radar sites across Alberta by 70 per cent.
For Dominic Schamuhn, manager of government relations with the Alberta Motor Association, the correlation between reducing these traffic control measures and the increase in traffic fatalities isn’t just a coincidence.
He said it points to a larger problem with driving culture, because most traffic collisions are preventable.
“Whether it's folks driving too fast, folks driving distracted, folks driving too close to the vehicle in front of them — most of these collisions are preventable,” Schamuhn said.
“If [fatalities] are on the rise, as we're seeing right now, we know that people aren't getting the message that when you're behind the wheel, it's your responsibility to drive safely, to make sure that you're paying attention to what's happening around you.”
Street safety has also been called into question, with 10 of this year’s fatalities involving pedestrians.
Last year, six pedestrians died from traffic collisions.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.