Toronto, Ontario — The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said Tuesday that 107 people have died on OPP-monitored roads so far this year, marking a collision fatality rate it says Ontario has not seen for ten years.
The OPP said it has not seen the number of people killed in road collisions reach the 100 mark by the second week of May since 2012.
The provincial police force said two driving behaviours stood out in its research: driver inattention and alcohol/drug-related deaths. Fatalities linked to driver distraction are up 79 percent compared to 2021; alcohol and drug-related road fatalities are up 36 percent over last year.
There have been 15 seat-belt-related deaths and speeding-related fatalities are “not far off from last year’s mark” with 27 deaths so far, said the OPP.
The most recent Canada-wide collision fatality data is from 2020 when the number of road fatalities per 100,000 population decreased to 4.6–the lowest on record–and down from 4.7 in 2019.
