Looking for the latest Ontario driving stats and trends? We’ve got you covered. We’ve curated, vetted, and categorized a list of most recent, up-to-date stats below. Each statistic on drivers and their behaviour is specific to Ontario except where stated otherwise.
Texting and Driving Accidents in Ontario
- Generally, texting increases crash risk 23 times. In Ontario, deaths from collisions caused by distracted driving have doubled since 2000.
- One person is injured in a distracted-driving collision every half hour. (Ontario.ca)
- More than 33% of Ontario high school students (grades 10 to 12) say they have texted while driving at least once in the past year. For Ontario high school students in grade 12 alone, the number climbed to 46% who have texted while driving. (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)
- 40.5% of teens reported that they sometimes read texts and 32.6% send texts while driving. 40.5% of teens sometimes read texts and 32.6% send texts while driving. About 6% of teens almost always read texts, about 4% of them almost always sent texts while driving. About 1% of Ontario teenagers reported that they always read and send texts while driving. (Public Health Ontario)
Driving Fatalities in Ontario
- In 2017, Ontario’s fatality rate of 0.61 per 10,000 licensed drivers was the fourth lowest in North America. (The three jurisdictions with the lowest fatality rates were Nunavut; Newfoundland & Labrador; and Washington, DC.) For more than 20 years, Ontario has ranked in the top five for road safety among all North American jurisdictions. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2017, there were 617 traffic fatalities on Ontario roads. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In Ontario, in 2018, there were 4.2 fatalities and 356.9 injuries per 100,000 population. (Transport Canada, 2020)
- In Ontario, in 2018, there were 4.1 fatalities and 347.4 injuries per billion vehicle-kilometres travelled. (Transport Canada, 2020)
- In Ontario, in 2018, there were 5.8 fatalities and 491.3 injuries per 100,000 licensed drivers. (Transport Canada, 2020)
- In 2017, the Ontario Provincial Police responded to 68,794 collisions, 304 of which were fatal. This represented the highest number of traffic fatalities in five years. Seventy-six of those fatal collisions involved commercial vehicles, resulting in 91 deaths. This represented a 10-year-high for fatal collisions involving commercial vehicles. (Ontario Provincial Police, 2018)
- In 2017, 114 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents. From 2008 to 2017, there was a gradual increase in pedestrian fatalities as a proportion of all fatalities. In 2008, pedestrians represented 15% of all road users killed; in 2017, they represented 18%. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2014, 175 motorcyclists were killed in crashes. The vast majority (158) of those crashes occurred on dry roads. Motorcyclists aged 45 to 54 accounted for 87 of these deaths, more than any other age group. In 50 of those fatal crashes, the motorcyclist was operating his or her motorcycle properly; that is, the other driver was likely at fault. (Ontario Provincial Police, 2014)
Contributing Factors in Traffic Fatalities
- In 2017, there were 141 fatalities in collisions involving large trucks. In addition, 2% of the examined large trucks involved in fatal crashes had an apparent defect that may have contributed to the crash. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2017, there were 107 people killed in collisions involving an inattentive (distracted) driver. Inattentive driving was a factor in 17% of all fatalities on Ontario roads in 2017. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2017, 1,902 collisions involved a vehicle operator whose blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeded 0.08%, the legal limit for intoxication in Ontario. (Here, “operator” includes bicyclists and the operators of all types of motor vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles.) See the following chart for a breakdown of collisions by the age of the drunk vehicle operator. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2017, 133 people were killed in collisions involving a drunk driver. However, Ontario’s drinking and driving fatality rate was only 0.13 persons per 10,000 licensed drivers. This is the lowest drinking and driving fatality rate in North America, followed by Washington, DC (0.21). (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In 2017, 75 people were killed in collisions involving a drugged driver. This represents about 1% of all traffic fatalities. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- The following table lists the contributing factors involving the most fatalities, along with the number of fatalities and the percentage of the total. (Note that these percentages do not add up exactly to 100% because some fatalities involved more than one contributing factor.) (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- Some roads and traffic intersections are much more dangerous than others. According to a poll of drivers conducted by CAA in 2018, the most dangerous spot in Ontario is Highway 401 between Windsor and London. It has been nicknamed “Carnage Alley” for its frequent collisions, many of which involved death or injury. Use extra caution if you drive on this section of road. (Greg Monforton and Partners, 2019)
- Rear-end collisions are the most common types of accidents in Ontario involving more than one vehicle. According to statistics compiled by the government, of the 35,972 motor vehicle crashes in 2016, 9,821 of them were rear-end collisions in which people were injured or killed. (Diamond & Diamond Lawyers, 2017)
- In 2013, there were 1,694 collisions in construction zones. Seven of these collisions led to the deaths of eight people, and another 341 of these collisions involved injuries. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2013)
- In 2017, there were 25 fatalities among senior drivers age 80 and over, an increase of 47% from 17 in 2016. The number of licensed senior drivers (80+) has more than doubled over the past 20 years, from almost 125,000 in 1998 to approximately 320,000 in 2017. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- In most collisions in 2017 involving death or personal injury, the driver was male. See the following charts. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- Ontario has a 96% seatbelt usage rate. Nevertheless, about 1 out of 5 vehicle occupants killed on Ontario’s roads were unbelted. (Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2017)
- Research by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation shows that some 26% of all fatal and injury crashes are estimated to be related to fatigued driving. In 2006, as many as 167,000 Ontario drivers may have been involved in at least one crash due to fatigued or drowsy driving. (Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 2009)
- In 2008, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation conducted a survey of Ontario police officers, including RCMP, provincial, and municipal forces. 95.9% of officers surveyed identified fatigued driving as a serious problem, and 89.2% of them ranked the problem as being as important as, or comparable to impaired driving. 92.4% of the officers who were surveyed also stated that they had stopped a driver whom they suspected to be impaired, only to discover that the driver was fatigued instead. However, whereas almost all officers considered fatigued driving a serious or extremely serious problem, only 59.6% of Ontario drivers agreed. (Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 2009)
- In a recent public opinion poll conducted by TIRF, nearly 60% of Ontario drivers, corresponding to some five million people, admitted that they have driven fatigued at least sometimes. Well over a million Ontario drivers (14.5%) also admit that they have fallen asleep or nodded off while driving at least once in the past year. Collectively, these drivers account for about 5.5 million trips in Ontario during which they fell asleep or nodded off. (Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 2009)
- In another poll of Ontario drivers, the most frequently cited reason for driving fatigued was lack of sleep the night before. (Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 2007)
Other Ontario Driving Statistics
- A survey of young Ontario drivers in 2013 found that among drivers in grades 10 through 12, 4% of them had driven a vehicle after drinking alcohol, and 9.7% had driven a vehicle after smoking cannabis. (MADD Canada, 2020)
- As of March 2020, 543 persons were killed in driving-related collisions on Ontario roads in 2019. (Preliminary 2019 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report Selected Statistics, Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, 2020)
- October is the most deadly month for fatal and injury collisions involving motor vehicles, with 3,211 of total collisions (57 fatal and 2,154 personal injury collisions). (Preliminary 2019 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report Selected Statistics, Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, 2019)