Toronto, Ontario — November 28, 2013 — A third of all car collisions occur on Thursdays and Fridays, according to the fifth annual Allstate Insurance Company of Canada Safe Driving Study. The study examines the frequency of customers’ collision claims in Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario. Fridays have the most collisions (17.0 percent) followed by Thursdays (16.0 percent). Sunday drivers are the safest, with only 9.8 percent of collisions happening on that day.
While Thursday and Friday see the most collisions, the Allstate Canada study found that Canadian roads have in fact become a little bit safer overall in the past two years. Customers insured by Allstate Canada had 5.3 percent fewer collisions from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013, than in the previous 24 month period.
Only communities with at least 1500 cars insured by Allstate Canada during the 24-month period were included in the study, to ensure the data provides a realistic outlook of what is happening on roadways. Allstate Canada uses data from 50 communities in the provinces where Allstate Canada has agency locations: Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario.
Claims data is limited to collisions for which there was a payout. Claims for incidents such as break-ins or vandalism are not included in this analysis. The survey data ranks only the frequency of collisions, not severity.
Looking at the frequency of collisions by community, of the 50 included in the study Medicine Hat, Alta., was found to have the lowest collision rate and also the biggest drop in collision frequency of communities tracked in the study. Its collisions frequency rate fell from 5.45 percent in the 2009 to 2011 period to 2.93 percent in 2011 to 2013. This is a 46.17 per cent reduction in the frequency of collisions in the community.
After Medicine Hat, the five communities with the largest decrease in collision claims are Spruce Grove, Alta., (30.31 percent decrease), Brampton, Ont., (25.10 per cent), Saint John, New Brunswick, (20.97 percent), and Cornwall, Ont., (18.43 percent reduction in collisions).
The five communities with the largest increase in collisions are all in Ontario — Milton (21.51 percent increase), Kingston (17.12 percent), Georgetown (10.21 percent), Hamilton (8.87 percent), and Kitchener (8.66 percent increase in collisions).
Nova Scotia has the lowest collision frequency of the provinces studied at 4.45 percent. However, the other provinces in the study improved within a 24-month period while Nova Scotia’s collision frequency increased by 1.8 percent. After Nova Scotia, the provinces ranked, from lowest collision rate to highest, New Brunswick (4.73 percent), followed by Ontario (4.99 percent) and Alberta (5.20 percent). For detailed information, including a community-by-community breakdown, please click here.
Regional Findings
ALBERTA
• The seven Alberta cities in the study, from lowest collision frequency to highest, are Medicine Hat (2.93 percent), Spruce Grove (3.75 percent), Lethbridge (4.06 percent), Sherwood Park (4.68 percent), St. Albert (4.75 percent), Calgary (5.72 percent) and Edmonton (5.84 percent).
ONTARIO
• Seven of the top ten communities in the study, that is communities with the lowest frequency of collisions, are from Ontario: Sarnia (3.50 percent) at no. 2, Sault Ste. Marie (4.14 percent) at no. 5, Greater Sudbury (4.15 percent) at no. 6, St. Catharines (4.19 percent) at no. 7, Cornwall (4.25 percent) at no. 8, Peterborough (4.29 percent) at no. 9 and Thunder Bay (4.30 percent) at no. 10.
MARITIMES
• Of the maritime communities studied, Dartmouth (4.34 percent), ranked best at 11 of 50 followed by Lower Sackville (4.40 percent) at no. 12, Riverview (4.45 percent) at no. 13, Saint John (5.04 percent) at no. 28, Fredericton (5.18 percent) at no. 30, Moncton (5.34 percent) at no. 33, and Halifax (5.47 percent) at no. 35.
Allstate Canada has also released a study that looks at collision data from customers in Quebec, finding that Quebec customers insured by Allstate Canada had 1.2 per cent fewer collisions from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013, than in the previous 24 month period.
Looking at the frequency of collisions by community, of the 10 included in the study from the province, Chateauguay was found to have the lowest collision rate and is also the most improved community tracked in the study. Its collisions frequency rate fell from 7.51 percent in the 2009 to 2011 period to 6.43 percent in 2011 to 2013. This is a 14.42 per cent reduction in the frequency of collisions in the community.
The three most improved communities are Chateauguay (14.42 percent reduction in collisions), Dollard-des-Ormeaux (7.41 percent reduction), and Longueuil (6.22 percent reduction in collisions). For more detailed information on the Quebec study, please click here.
