Police release an analysis of 2013 vehicle/pedestrian collisions

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Correction: February 18, 2015

In the 2013 pedestrian/vehicle collision report originally released on May 30, 2014, some collisions involving a cyclist or scooter were inadvertently categorized as pedestrian collisions. The issue has been addressed to ensure accurate reporting going forward. The numbers in the release below and the attached report have been revised to reflect the corrected data.

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As part of our continued focus on pedestrian safety, HRM Partners in Policing have completed an analysis of 2013 vehicle/pedestrian collisions in HRM to provide police and citizens with more contextual information.

When police in Nova Scotia respond to a reportable vehicle collision (ie. those involving injury/fatality, damage over $2000 and/or a hit and run), officers capture data about the collision on a paper-based form which is subsequently submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles. At present, a small amount of data from each collision is transcribed into the records management system of police. In order to have an accurate and precise count of the number of collisions involving pedestrians in 2013, HRM Partners in Policing conducted a manual review of over 9,000 paper accident reports and identified every file involving a pedestrian collision. A crime analyst then reviewed the identified files, looking at various factors including time of day, the age and gender of the driver and pedestrian; weather conditions; if a ticket was issued; etc.

Below is a synopsis of the findings:

There were 169 collisions in HRM in 2013 involving 174 pedestrians, 97 % of the pedestrians suffered minor injuries or no injuries; 56% of the collisions occurred at crosswalks; 60% of the pedestrians were women; 65% of the drivers were men; Collisions were most common on Wednesdays, and occurred more frequently in the morning (8-9 a.m.) and late afternoon (3-7 p.m.); Collisions occurred less frequently during the summer months, with the lowest number recorded in August. The number of collisions gradually increased throughout the rest of the year, ending with the highest number in December. We will use the information from this analysis and data collected on a go-forward basis to implement targeted enforcement in areas of concern. Further, in January 2014, HRM Partners in Policing took additional steps to review all vehicle collisions and created additional codes to allow us to easily extract accurate pedestrian and bicycle collision data.

We realize that pedestrian safety remains a concern for citizens and will continue to release all incidents involving a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle.

The complete analysis can be found at http://www.halifax.ca/police/PressReleases/documents/HRMVehiclePedestrianCollisions2013HRMUPDATED.pdf