Chatham-Kent police have released their annual list of the most dangerous intersections across the municipality and two tied with the most crashes last year.
Keil Drive and Richmond Street in Chatham tied Lacroix Street and Richmond St. with 14 collisions each in 2021. Keil Drive and Grand Avenue (Chatham) placed third with 10 crashes.
Police said they track the collisions to help them better focus their traffic enforcement.
The collision reporting centre reported a total of 1,668 collisions in 2021 and 10 fatal crashes, an increase of two fatal collisions from the previous year. November led the way for most crashes in a month and Wednesday was the busiest day for collisions. Police said most of the crashes occur in the afternoon.
The number of fatal or life threatening traffic investigations also increased last year by six from 21 to 27. The police report showed three of the 10 fatal crashes were caused by alcohol or drugs, two were mental health incidents, and one driver was not wearing seat belt. Officers laid 14 criminal charges and issued 14 tickets in 10 of the crash investigations.
Police also said 38 field sobriety tests were conducted in 2021 resulting in four licence suspensions and 16 impaired driving arrests, a 325 per cent increase from tests in 2020.
Drug Recognition Officers were also used 46 times, a jump of 283 per cent over 2020.
Officers also conducted 35 RIDE checks last year, stopping 4,208 vehicles. They performed 40 breathalyzer tests, laid one criminal charge and another impaired driving charge, suspended seven licences, and issued 13 tickets.
The annual traffic report also showed that 39 commercial vehicles were taken off the road in 2021 and 45 charges were laid during three safety blitzes. By comparison, 76 commercial vehicles were deemed unsafe in 2020 and 12 were taken out of service in 2019.
There were 3,674 traffic tickets issued last year, which is a significant drop from the 6,034 handed out the previous year and the 7,464 tickets issued in 2019. The heaviest month for traffic tickets last year was March (690), followed by April (418).
The Marine Unit stopped 12 vessels last summer and issued three warnings. Marine Unit officers also responded to 11 calls involving speeding vessels, abandoned vessels, recovery efforts, and general assistance.
The police drone was also deployed 46 times last year to help with criminal investigations, crashes, and missing persons, which is a 39 per cent increase from 2020.
