iN NUMBERS: How we crash our cars

Over on iN Discussion, readers are going off about some recent traffic news involving excessive speed.

There seems to be general agreement that traffic fines aren’t enough to offset the danger posed to others, so we thought we’d take a closer look at some ICBC crash data for some context behind crashes.

• 96: That’s the number of fatal crash victims in BC in 2023, above the five-year average of 88.
• 29: That’s the percentage of those crashes that involved speed.
• 27: That’s the percentage of 2023 crashes that involved driver distraction.
• 21: That’s the percentage of those crashes that involve driver impairment.
• 35: That’s the number of crash deaths in the BC Interior in 2023.
• 129: That’s the number of crashes at Dilworth Drive and Harvey Avenue in Kelowna in 2024, the worst intersection in the BC Interior.
• 438: That’s the number of fatalities involving speed since 2019 across the province.
• 392: That’s how many fatalities since 2019 involved distracted drivers in BC.
• 307: Number of impaired fatalities in the same time frame. These three factors account for the vast majority of crashes.
• 319: That’s the number of crashes involving injured cyclists in the Southern Interior in 2024.
• 368: That’s the amount in dollars for an excessive speeding ticket. That’s the same amount for distracted driving.
• 1,000: That’s the minimum fine for impaired driving charges.
• 200: Minimum fine for an immediate roadside prohibition, the BC way.