Would it surprise you to learn that a third of all car collisions happen on Thursdays and Fridays?
The fifth annual Allstate Insurance Company of Canada Safe Driving Study shows that Fridays have the most collisions at 17% followed by Thursdays at 16%. Sunday is statistically the safest day registering only 9.8% of collisions.
Allstate studied the frequency of customers' collision claims in Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013, and found that the collision rate has decreased 5.3% from the previous 24 month period.
"We are encouraged to find that collisions are decreasing across the country, and we hope this trend continues," says Saskia Matheson, spokesperson for Allstate Canada. "Many car collisions are avoidable, so reinforcing the message of safe driving is a priority for Allstate Canada."
As for the higher collision rates for Thursdays and Fridays, Matheson reasons that more activity on those days are typical because they are both commuter days and it's often the case that people are getting together or socializing after work. The other days of the week are likely to be commuter days or social days, but perhaps not both, Matheson maintains. Driver fatigue at the end of the workweek may also be a contributing factor.
Data from 50 Canadian communities was also examined by Allstate and Medicine Hat, AB, was found to have the lowest collision rate. Furthermore, Medicine Hat is the most improved community tracked in the study with its collisions frequency rate falling from 5.45% in the 2009-2011 period to 2.93% in 2011-2013. That's a 46.17% reduction.
After Medicine Hat, the five most improved communities, showing the largest decrease in collision claims, are Spruce Grove, AB, (30.31% decrease), Brampton, ON, (25.10 %), Saint John, NB, (20.97 %), and Cornwall, ON, with an 18.43 % reduction in collisions.
Conversely, the five communities with the biggest increase in collisions are all in Ontario: Milton (21.51 %), Kingston (17.12 %), Georgetown (10.21 %), Hamilton (8.87 %), and Kitchener with an 8.66 % increase in collisions.
Matheson adds: "We have conducted this study for five years now with the goal to generate discussions about what it means to be a safe driver and to help keep roads and communities safer for everyone. While the study can only look at our data, we believe it's important to share what trends we are seeing and by expanding the study to over 60 cities across Canada we can increase the national conversation about road safety."
Provincially, Nova Scotia showed the lowest collision frequency at 4.45% followed by New Brunswick (4.73 %), Ontario (4.99 %) and Alberta (5.20 %).