PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. — The Insurance Corp. of B.C. (ICBC) has reported that Port Coquitlam’s roads have the highest percentage of accidents in the province.

Port Coquitlam had 73.2 crashes per 10,000 population according to an ICBC study. That compares to neighbouring jurisdictions of: New Westminster with 73; Surrey with 72; Coquitlam with 70.4; and Burnaby with 70.1.

“There are a lot of bottlenecks and slow-going (traffic) toward the bridges," ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland told local media.

Other interesting conclusions include the fact that chances of getting in an accident in the Lower Mainland are 75 per cent higher than on Vancouver Island. Meanwhile, cities on the eastern side of the Lower Mainland have higher accident rates than cities on the west side.

“West Vancouver (66.5) doesn’t have a lot of through traffic. In Richmond (66.5), the streets are straight. You see the crossroads long before you get to the intersection,” McClelland told media. “The north central cities — Fort St. John (44), Smithers (19.4) and Prince Rupert (20.9) have less chance of a collision taking place.”

The report involved crash data between May 5-27 from the years 1999-2003.