TORONTO, Ont. — Transport truck crashes are decreasing, according to a newly released Ontario Road Safety Annual Report (ORSAR) 2002.

The ORSAR report tallies collisions in Ontario.
One of the key findings is that although the number of large trucks on Ontario roads continues to increase, fatalities in large truck crashes continues a downward trend.

Between 1990 and 2002, the number of large trucks on Ontario’s roads increased by 37 per cent while fatalities in large truck collisions actually decreased by 13 per cent. Consequently, the number of fatalities per 100,000 large trucks has declined over this period — by 36 per cent.

The report also shows that of all the vehicles on the roads that had collisions in 2002, only one per cent were tractor and semi-trailers. Also, tractor and semi-trailers represented one per cent of the vehicles involved in personal injury and property damage collisions.

Double truck combinations, which are somewhat longer than tractor semi-trailer combinations, represented 0.3 per cent of all vehicles involved in fatal collisions as well as 0.01 per cent of vehicles involved in personal injury and property damage collisions.

The report also found that truck drivers are far less likely than others drivers to mix drinking and driving — 1.3 per cent of fatal truck collisions involved alcohol while the number is a whopping 13.7 per cent for other road users.

The ORSAR report is compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and includes data from a broad-range of sources including a variety of government ministries, police services and the Chief Coroner’s Office.