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.
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