The Ontario Ministry of Transportation's Annual Road Safety Report released February 26 shows that Ontario's roads were the safest in North America in 2001, and that the province's tractor-trailers and their drivers were the safest vehicles and drivers on the road.
In 2001, tractor-trailer units, including double-trailer combinations and bobtailing tractors, represented just 1.8% of all vehicles involved in all collisions on the province's roadways. Trucks accounted for only 6½% of all the vehicles involved in all fatal collisions that year.
The actual number of fatalities in all truck collisions, including straight trucks, decreased by more than 4.5% in 2001 to 143 and fell more than 16% from their peak of five years before.
This report also found that drinking and driving was a factor among 2.3% of the truck drivers involved in fatal collisions, compared with more than 16% for the entire driving population.