A “disturbing” trend has been happening over the past few years, as local emergency services are finding themselves busier and busier responding to motor vehicle collisions.
“Throughout out this whole area we have gone from responding to 50 motor vehicle collisions in 2009 to responding to 127 motor vehicle collisions into 2013,” said Bonnyville Regional Fire Association (BRFA) Chief Brian McEvoy.
“Currently we are at almost 80 collisions for 2014. With our projections, if the trend continues the way it is going, based on the activity this year, we will be approaching 140 motor vehicle collisions that we will respond to. That trend is really disturbing to us.”
However, these numbers do not represent the scope of motor vehicle collisions in the region. The BRFA's numbers only represent what the crews respond to, which is restricted to collisions that require emergency services.
“We do not respond to every motor vehicle accident. We only respond to accidents that require our assistance,” said McEvoy. “So an accident where there is nobody trapped, no hazardous materials, or the occupants are not injured; we don't respond to those accidents.”
McEvoy organized data from responses to wild land fires, structure fires and motor vehicle collisions. The number of structure fires the BFRA has responded to over the past six years has been steady, at an average of 40 per year. He said, wild land fires fluctuate depending on the weather and have increased from 56 in 2009 to 94 in 2013. The outlier is the number of responses to motor vehicle collisions, which is increasing dramatically.
“In 2013 we responded to more motor vehicle collisions than we did smoke alarm investigations; and smoke alarm investigations are typically the fire services highest response,” said McEvoy.
In 2009 the BRFA responded to 50 collisions. In 2010 it jumped to 60 collisions and then up to 79 in 2011. In 2012 it dropped down to 68 collisions, before skyrocketing up to 127 collisions in 2013.
“That kind of an upswing is really concerning to us. It is taxing on all of our volunteers. It's taxing on all of the emergency services, EMS and police as well. We want to bring this to light for the community because the majority of these collisions are avoidable.”
With the population and activity in this region constantly on the rise, McEvoy says a slight increase in emergency services calls was expected but feels the jump he has seen can't just be due to increased activity.
“When we start seeing that kind of spike it means there is a problem,” said McEvoy.
As of July, the BRFA had already responded to just under 80 collisions and is on pace to respond to around 140 serious accidents. McEvoy feels many of the collisions he responds to can be avoided if drivers took better caution.
“People need to understand that they are responsible for that vehicle when they are driving it. Stop signs are there for a reason. Speed signs are there for a purpose,” said McEvoy.
“Anything that we can do to reduce the number of emergency responses for motor vehicle collisions is very much appreciated.”
