Toronto recorded fewest traffic-related deaths in a decade in 2025: city data
CBC
Last year, Toronto had the fewest traffic-related deaths it’s recorded in a decade, just as a major road safety program has been removed from the city.
The latest city data shows 39 people died on Toronto’s roads in 2025, even fewer than in 2020, when COVID-19 pandemic restrictions kept the streets far emptier than usual.
There were 19 pedestrians deaths recorded, 12 motorists, five motorcyclists, two cyclists and one “micromobility” death, which includes people who ride electric bikes, e-mopeds and e-scooters.
That adds up to half the total traffic deaths recorded a decade ago, when numbers hit a 10-year high. In 2016, 78 people — over half of them pedestrians — died in traffic incidents on Toronto’s streets, according to city data.
That prompted the City of Toronto to introduce its Vision Zero strategy with the goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths. The plan includes a variety of road safety measures, including redesigning streets to make it harder to drive over the speed limit, and introducing speed cameras and red light cameras.
In the 10 years since the plan launched, traffic fatalities have generally trended down.
Vision Zero’s projects manager says the strategy had it’s biggest budget yet in 2025 and was able to expand.
“We had record-breaking years for several of our programs in terms of how big they were,” said Sheyda Saneinejad. “So I don't think there's a coincidence that … all that came together to get us [those] numbers.”
But one of those expanded programs is now gone. The city’s speed cameras, which doubled in number from 75 to 150 in 2025, were taken down in the fall under new provincial legislation.
That’s despite CAA studies that found evidence they reduced speeding and most Ontarians wanted them in place. There are many safety measures needed to prevent traffic deaths, but speed cameras were a key component where they were installed, said Lauren Fisher, CAA’s manager of government relations.
“If nothing is put in place to combat speeding in these areas, yes, we're going to see these numbers potentially go up,” said Fisher.
Premier Doug Ford and his government have repeatedly called speed cameras an ineffective “cash grab” and had them replaced late last year with large, flashing signs to warn drivers to slow down.
Asked by reporters Thursday whether doubling the city's number of speed cameras last year contributed to lower fatality numbers, Ford called the argument "a bunch of hogwash."
"What stops accidents is actually physically slowing people down," he said, suggesting people want speed bumps and police enforcement.
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