Two communities in Greater Sudbury earned top marks in a recent survey of safe driving areas in Canada for 2016.
The survey by Allstate Canada rated towns and cities according to the frequency of accidents per 100 cars. Val Therese, a community in Valley East, was rated the safest place in Ontario to drive, with an average of 3.69 collisions per 100 cars. It finished third in Canada, behind the Alberta communities of Spuce Grove and Lethbridge.
Not far behind was Chelmsford at 3.86, second in Ontario and fifth in Canada. Sudbury finished 26th in Canada, down two spots from 2015. Val Therese finished fifth last year, while Chelmsford was sixth.
The most dangerous place to drive according to the survey? Halifax, which had a rate of 7.77 collisions per 100 cars, good for 86th and last place on the survey. The worst place in Ontario was Ajax (7.68) followed by North York (7.31) and Scarborough (7.17).
The safest province for collisions is New Brunswick, with an average of 5.13, followed by Alberta (5.22) and Ontario (5.79).
The latest Safe Driving Study also found that, at 17 per cent, Friday is the day with the highest number of collision claims across the country.
In fact, Fridays see the highest frequency of collisions spanning nearly all categories, including: multi-vehicle accidents involving a chain reaction (19 per cent of all claims of this type occur on Fridays); lane changes (18 per cent); vehicles being rear-ended (18 per cent); collisions resulting from turning or passing through an intersection (17 per cent); and head-on collisions (17 per cent), amongst others.
While the highest frequency of overall collision claims take place on Fridays, the study found that accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists were most likely to occur on Wednesdays, when 17 per cent of these types of collisions have taken place. The second-highest day of the week for collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists was Friday (16 per cent).
The day of the year with the most collisions was Nov. 19, while the safest day of the year to drive was Christmas Day, Dec. 25.
For a city-by-city listing, here's the entire list.
