New Report Summarizes Reported Collisions in City from 2018-2022

On December 19, 2023 at the Committee of the Whole meeting, Council will review a report from the City’s Transportation Engineering division on collisions that occurred on City streets between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2022 in St. John’s. The report summarizes five-years of reported collision data and trends for incidents at intersections and mid-blocks (road segment between two intersections), as well as those involving pedestrians and cyclists.

Key Findings

The report offers a high-level analysis highlighting several key trends, including collisions per year, severity types and incidents involving pedestrians or cyclists. Some of the key findings include:

• Of the 6,566 reported collisions occurring on City streets from 2018-2022, 47% occurred at intersections. Although a greater number of collisions occur at mid-block locations, intersections have a higher proportion of collisions resulting in injury.

• The report summarizes the top 25 intersections with the highest collision rates, which is determined by considering the number of collisions alongside the volume of vehicle traffic through an intersection. The top intersection identified was Goldstone Street at Thorburn Road/Seaborn Street, which has previously been identified for improvements and is currently in the process of being modified to address safety concerns.

• Collisions that occurred at mid-block location are ranked by collision frequency in the report. The report summarizes the top 20 mid-block locations by collision frequency (number of collisions that have occurred in the five-year study period). The top location identified is Kelsey Drive between Kiwanis Street and Messenger Drive, which has previously been identified to address safety concerns and currently in the stage of detail design for improvements.

• A total of 354 pedestrian and 69 cyclist related reported collisions occurred on City streets over the five-year period.

As a next step, staff will conduct a detailed assessment of the higher collision risk locations to identify candidate sites to include in a comprehensive safety study, which would then be used to guide recommendations for detailed design of improvements.

Completion of the collision report and projects emerging from the planned analysis are part of the City’s strategic commitment to be a City That Moves - a city that builds a balanced transportation network to get people and goods where they want to go safely – as identified in Our City, Our Future.

Related Links:

• City of St. John’s Collision Report (2018-2022)