By Sarah Stone

Most collision-prone intersections ranked in P.A.

May 14, 2015 | 6:28 AM

Over the past five years there has been several serious automobile accidents in Prince Albert, and many have ended in loss of life.

In January 2013, Chrystal Rivet, 30,was killed when an intoxicated 21-year-old Craig Kopichanski crashed his vehicle into hers at the intersection of 28th Street and Sixth Avenue East.

Just a week before Kopichanski was sentenced for his crime in July 2013, a truck slammed into a vehicle at 28th Street and 12th Avenue East and fatally injured its two occupants, Brandi Lepine, 17, and Taylor Litwin, 21.

Meanwhile, that August a pedestrian on a bicycle was struck by a vehicle at the corner of 15th Street West and Second Avenue and died on scene.

And in December of 2014 Mara Selanders and Matthew Kozun were in a serious crash involving another vehicle that left Selanders with substantial, but non-life threatening, injuries.

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All but one of these accidents occurred in the top 10 intersections with the most collisions in the city.  The intersection where Litwin and Lepine were hit did not make it onto the list.

According to an SGI report from 2013, 33 per cent of fatal collisions and 58 per cent of personal injury collisions occurred at intersections.  In addition, 250 people were injured in car accidents in the city.  There were 7,031 injuries province wide.

Despite these recent fatalities, statistics provided by the City of Prince Albert show the number of collisions from 2009 to 2014 are actually down.

Based on claims, in 2009 there were a total of 326 collisions in the city; by 2014 that number had dropped to 110.

Collision per year in Prince Albert

2009 – 326 Collisions

2010 – 197 Collisions

2011 – 163 Collisions

2012 – 239 Collisions

2013 – 199 Collisions

2014 – 110 Collisions

This positive trend comes in spite of the fact that traffic counts are up.

“The number of people coming in and out of the city, but also the number of people who are passing through those major intersections, those traffic counts are significantly up from previous counts,” said Wes Hicks, manager of capital projects and acting director of public works.

He attributes that to a number factors. 

“We’ve been doing a lot more paving of roads, so we have improved roadway services, there’s probably better enforcement by the police, there’s better education by SGI, and we’ve had better weather conditions.  If you have a more milder winter, then you have better road conditions, our snow crews are able to keep up, our sanding keeps up and you have less slippery conditions,” he said.

Being able to paint all 106 kilometres of road lines last year also aids drivers now to be where they need to be and could have contribute to this continuing positive trend, he added.

“We’re always trying to improve the intersections.  Sixth Avenue East and 15th Street, we’re looking at improvements there; we need to improve the length of the turning lanes.  Second Avenue West and 15th, that’s part of the construction project for this summer to improve the surfaces there and the turning lanes,” Hicks explained.

Here are the top 10 intersections with the most collisions in P.A., according to the City

*The statistics provided are based on an average annual number seen at each intersection

SGI manager of media relations Kelley Brinkworth said it provides resources to Prince Albert to help with intersection safety.

“We fund overtime hours, so that the Prince Albert Police Service can conduct some additional enforcement at some of those problematic intersections in the city,” Brinkworth said, which started in September of 2007.

Other things around intersection safety that SGI has focused on include monthly traffic spotlights.  In January, intersection safety was the focus “so police right across the province paid particular attention to traffic violations at intersections and then our role is to help raise awareness about the importance of intersection safety.”

On Tuesday, RCMP sent out a reminder that this week is Road Safety Week.

In a statement, the RCMP said 30 people have died on Saskatchewan roads this year.

It’s reminding people to drive sober, wear a seatbelt, and always pay attention to the road.

“When you see sort of a steady decrease that definitely seems promising, but still when you look at those numbers and the fact that 47 people [across Saskatchewan in 2013] were killed at intersection collisions, there’s still a lot more work that can be done,” Brinkworth said.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84