Days leading up to Christmas have the most crashes: study

WATCH: Mark Carcasole reports on why vehicle collisions increase in December leading up to Christmas.

TORONTO – Car accidents are most likely to happen during three days in December, according to the results of a study by All State Insurance.

The insurance company analyzed insurance claims in 50 communities across Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and New Brunswick spanning the last 20 years and found December 21, 22, and 23 have the most insurance claims of the year with an average of 3,113.

“We find when people are driving in December, they’re often distracted a little bit,” Jason Foroglou, an All State manager said during an interview Friday. “They’re very busy getting to different appointments or getting to different social functions, so there are more cars on the road and higher chance of getting into an accident.”

Christmas Day, Dec. 25, has the fewest, according to All State.

Data obtained by Global News from the city of Toronto found December 23 was the worst day for car accidents in the city. People are out shopping in the lead up to Christmas and city data shows a spike in accidents at major shopping centres.

The top collision location for Dec. 23 according to the data was the Scarborough Town Centre, followed by the Dufferin Mall. But for the week, Yorkdale Mall was worst, followed by Scarborough Town Centre and Sherway Gardens.

But, Toronto Police Constable Clint Stibbe said, December is one of the safer months.

“We actually see a decline through the month of December overall. So when we look at the year as a whole, we actually see December, in certain circumstances, about halfway down the list of the most common time to have a collision.”

Stibbe said November is the worst month for pedestrian collisions and fatalities in Toronto.

– With files from Patrick Cain