Highway most dangerous place to drive in Kelowna but not in Kamloops

Seven of the ten intersections with the highest number of crashes in the Southern Interior in 2022 were along Highway 97 through Kelowna.

Two Kamloops intersections made the top 10 but neither of them were on Highway 1. The worst intersection on Highway 1 was at Oriole Road with 17 crashes in 2022.

Crash statistics for 2022 have just been posted online by ICBC.

In all, eight of the worst intersections in the Southern Interior were in Kelowna. The list is similar to 2021 but the order of a couple of intersections have changed.

The Dilworth Drive intersection with Highway 97 (which is also called Harvey Avenue) was the worst in the Southern Interior with 115 crashes in 2022.

That was followed by Spall Road (86), Gordon Drive (79), Cooper Road (77), Leckie Road (74), Highway 33 (63) and Banks Road (61).

The only non-highway intersection to make the top 10 list in Kelowna was the Benvoulin Road/Dilworth Drive/Springfield Road intersection with 58 crashes.

The Columbia Street West/Summit Drive intersection was the worst in Kamloops with 74 crashes, ranking number five on the list.

The Eighth Street/Fortune Drive/Tranquille Road intersection ranked seventh with 70 crashes.

Other intersections with Highway 97 in Kelowna ranked high with Burtch Road at number 11 with 58 crashes and Enterprise Road/Leathead Road at number 12 with 55 crashes.

A provincial transportation study released earlier this year said that Kelowna residents want the highway to be more of an urban road with stop lights rather than building a high-speed bypass.

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The two worst intersections in Lake Country were also along the highway at Oceola Road/Woodsdale Road (54 crashes) and Beaver Lake Road/Glenmore Road (23)

West Kelowna’s worst intersection was Hudson Road/Westlake Road/Highway 97 with 48 crashes.

The pattern continues in Vernon where Highway 97 is called 32 Street. The top two crash intersections in that city were along the highway at 25 Avenue (44 crashes) and 43 Avenue (32 crashes).

At the other end of the valley, Highway 97 becomes the Channel Parkway through Penticton, which had the top three crash intersections in 2022.

Warren Avenue West led the way with 19 followed by Duncan Avenue West/Parkway Place/Railway Street and Green Avenue West/Satikw Drive with 13 crashes each.

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Intersection crashes in the Southern Interior totalled 9,947 last year, reaching pre-pandemic levels.

The most dangerous intersection in BC last year was at 264 Street and Highway 1 in Langley with 240 crashes.

In terms of collisions as a whole, there were 287,040 in all of BC with 40,015 of those being in the Southern Interior. Those are not yet at pre-pandemic levels.

Of the Southern Interior crashes, 9,335 were in Kelowna, 6,169 in Kamloops, 3,404 in Vernon, 2,232 in Penticton and 2,214 in West Kelowna.

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