A multi-car pile up happened in downtown Trail, March 2019. (Trail Times photo)

A multi-car pile up happened in downtown Trail, March 2019. (Trail Times photo)

Looking at ICBC crashes report for Trail

Last week the B.C. insurer released collision details from municipalities across the province

There were 480 reported vehicle crashes in Trail last year, according to new data provided by ICBC.

Hundreds of crashes is obviously concerning, however, this figure is the lowest recorded in Trail over the past five years. In 2017, ICBC reports the highest number of Trail crashes at 584, compared to 567 in 2018, 523 in 2016, and 513 the year before that.

Another interesting point is where this number lands in terms of crashes reported in other B.C. communities.

In fact, the insurer’s report shows that Trail’s 2,667 crashes between 2015 to 2019 rank the city 60th on the list of most to least vehicular crashes reported to ICBC from the province’s 162 municipalities.

Comparatively, Vancouver is number one at 283,269 reported crashes over five years, while several Vancouver Island communities reported to have had only one over that same span of time.

Locally, Rossland is next at 843 accident reports over five years, then Fruitvale at 553 and Montrose at 110. Rounding out the list on the homefront is Warfield at 103 reported crashes from 2015 to 2019 and Genelle, 88.

These latest statistics were made available July 28 as part of a new ICBC website that shows extensive crash information for the province from 2015 to 2019.

Collisions in parking lots or involving parked cars are also included in crash totals.

The data can be narrowed down to several fields, such as in 2019, Trail had 57 crashes defined as casualties by ICBC. Over the five-year period there were 301 crashes involving casualties in the City of Trail.

It’s important to note that this number includes both personal injuries as well as fatalities but does not specify how many of each occurred.

By location, Highway 3B had the most crashes with 95 last year.

As far as nearby cities, there were 4,924 crashes between 2015 to 2019 in Nelson, 972 last year alone, ranking the Queen City 41st on ICBC’s provincial list. By street, the most crashes occurred on Highway 3A with 149 last year.

Castlegar had 624 accidents in 2019 and 3,047 over five years. Columbia Avenue was the most crash-prone street in Castlegar, with 181 in 2019.

Overall, Highway 1 was the province’s most dangerous road with 7,506 accidents last year. Highway 6 (587 crashes in 2019) and Highway 3A (351) are also included, but ICBC’s data doesn’t specify where on the highways the accidents took place.

Other 2019 crash stats show Nakusp (161), Salmo (129), and Kaslo (57).

More information can be found at ICBC’s website.


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