“The vast majority of fatal crashes occur on dry roads in daylight. For every person killed…traveling in the dark while it is snowing, 87 are killed traveling in daylight under no adverse atmospheric conditions. In states with no snow, the number of fatal crashes per day shows little change throughout the year. However, for the states with the most snow, fatalities per day are substantially lower in winter months than in summer months–the average daily rate for February being under half that for July and August.”

 

Dr. Evans analyzes why this might be so: less overall driving in unfavorable conditions, except that “the number of fatal crashes for the same distance of travel is still less in the winter than in the summer for the states with the most snow,” and the crux of it: “people drive more slowly and hence more safely on snowy roads.”

 

Sadly, three incidents during a recent motor trip to Kelowna from Vancouver via the Coquihalla and Okanagan Connector support Evans’ “counterintuitive” insight, although whether or not they resulted in fatalities is not known at the time of writing. The observed scope of the emergency responses to two of them indicated likely serious injury. All three appear to have involved single vehicles driving straight on within the traffic flow. All three occurred on clear, dry roads with perfect visibility.

 

The first crash was midday on July 3^rd.  On Highway 1, on the long straight stretch between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, a westbound black sedan flipped into the grass median. The car roof collapsed. When observed, ambulances and fire trucks were still arriving and efforts had just begun to extract the occupants.

 

The second incident was midday on July 7th. On Highway 97C, about a half an hour west of Kelowna, a black SUV had flipped onto its side down into a rocky gulley beside the shoulder of the westbound lanes. Traffic was stopped in both directions, partly to enable a helicopter to land on the eastbound lanes to pick up some of the wounded. The helicopter took off in the direction of Kelowna. Other occupants were loaded on stretchers into four ambulances. Two of these proceeded eastbound, sirens on, in the westbound lanes.

 

The third incident was without emergency fanfare: simply a blackened semi-trailer mostly smoldering but with parts still burning parked on the side of the eastbound lanes, east of Hope on Highway 1, mid-afternoon on July 7^th. All three incidents clearly involved some sort of loss of control. It’s easy to speculate that excessive speed was the cause. Highway driving with the flow even in the slow lane generally involves exceeding the posted speed limit by at least 10 km/hour. Many fast lane drivers are way over the limit, and way beyond their ability to effectively control their vehicles when the unexpected, inevitably occurs.

 

Lesson: Expect the unexpected, and slow down.