A recent report from SENSE BC, a group advocating for higher speed limits in B.C., claims that over a quarter of Malahat crashes from 2008 to 2017 were caused by driver inattentiveness.
Using data obtained from Freedom of Information requests to ICBC, the report published on Wednesday breaks down every single crash that happened on the Malahat within that decade.
Of the approximately 90,000,000 trips taken over the highway in that time span, there were 414 reported crashes, which equals one crash per 217,400 trips.
Of those 414 crashes, police reported that 109 of them were due to driver inattentiveness, the highest single cause of accident noted.
The second highest contributing factor was “road condition: ice, snow, slush, water,” which was cited in 74 crashes, followed by “driving too fast for conditions,” which was cited in 52 crashes.
There may be more than one contributing factor per crash, ICBC notes in their data.
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The report was produced by advocacy group SENSE BC to make an argument against point-to-point speed cameras.
The group says that there aren’t enough crashes due to exceeding the speed limit to suggest this use of photo radar is justified.
Police cited “Exceeding Speed Limit” in 23 of the 414 crashes. One of those crashes was caused by a vehicle speeding over 40 km/h higher than the posted speed limit.
