ORILLIA, Ont. – Ontario provincial police say fatal transport truck collisions are up in all but two of the force’s six regions this year, with collisions in the North East Region up by 800 per cent from 2017.
The OPP says officers have responded to 33 transport truck-related collisions so far this year – a 37.5 per cent increase compared to the same period last year – and 41 people have died in the crashes.
Police say there were two deaths in the North West Region, down 60 per cent, two in the Central Region, unchanged from last year, three in the Highway Safety Division, up 50 per cent, nine in the West Region, up 12.5 per cent, and eight in the East Region, an increase of 33.3 per cent.
OPP say they’ve investigated more than 3,600 transport truck-related collisions, representing 11 per cent of the total number of collisions in the province so far this year.
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The force also says it has spent close to 4,300 hours on transport truck inspections and taken 658 vehicles out of service.
And it says more than 1,615 speeding charges, 354 distracted driving charges and 963 defective equipment-related charges have been laid against transport truck drivers so far this year.