There were nearly 8,500 crashes on London roads last year, according to new statistics from city police — that’s a sharp decline from more than 10,000 collisions in 2015.
London police released the figures on Thursday, along with a top-10 list of intersections in London with the most collisions.
The junction at Wellington Rd. South and Exeter Rd. holds the lead for a second year in a row, with a total of 84 crashes in 2016.
“These are not actually bad intersections,” explained Traffic Management Unit Sergeant Amanda Pfeffer.
“These actually can be, and may well be, the safest intersections in the city of London. If you consider the volume of traffic that flows through these intersections, the number of collisions would be expected to be at this level.”
Wellington Rd. and Commissioners Rd. East was second on the list with 78 crashes last year, and Highbury Ave. and Oxford St. East rounded-out the top three with a total of 74 collisions in 2016.
“You’re not putting yourself in a dangerous situation if you’re traveling through an intersection within the city of London. You are putting yourself in a dangerous situation if you are using a motor vehicle while you are on your cell phone, while you are distracted, if you are choosing to violate our speed laws, or failing to stop for stop signs and red lights,” Pfeffer said.
Ken Gordon is an attendant at the Shell gas station on the southeast corner of Wellington Rd. and Exeter Rd., and says he’s not the least surprised that intersection made the top of the list.
“When you’re this close to the corner, we can hear the bangs and smashes,” Gordon said. “A lot of people ask what happened, and to the London police’s credit, they’re usually out here pretty quick.”
Gordon said proximity to ramps for the 401 is likely part of the reason why the crossing topped the list, and also the sheer number of cars that pass through the lights each day.
London resident Lise Matthews says driving through the two intersections that topped the list like “playing chicken,” because people aren’t driving according to the law.
“The advanced greens are not long enough, and there’s too many people jumping the red lights. It’s terrible,” she said.
“I think there should be more cameras, especially on these really bad intersections. There should be cameras to catch the red-light jumpers, the speeders, because everybody thinks red lights don’t mean anything.”
As part of the statistics released Thursday, police say they ticketed just over 1,900 people for driving while holding a mobile device in 2016, compared to 2,491 people ticketed for the same offence in 2015.
The high-collision intersections for 2016 are listed below. The number in brackets indicates where the intersection placed on the list in 2015.
84 collisions Wellington/Exeter (1)
78 collisions Wellington/Commissioners (2)
74 collisions Highbury/Oxford (3)
71 collisions Wharncliffe/Oxford (4)
70 collisions Oxford/Richmond (9)
70 collisions Oxford/Wonderland (6)
69 collisions Fanshawe Park/Adelaide (6)
66 collisions Adelaide/Oxford (5)
63 collisions Wonderland/Southdale (10)
62 collisions Highbury/Huron (8)
61 collisions Highbury/Hamilton (5)
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