The number of fatal crashes in Chatham-Kent went up last year.
The annual CKPS police statistics from the Traffic Management Unit show fatal collisions jumped from 11 in 2022 to 14 last year. That's the highest number in five years.
Police said eight of the fatal crashes involved impairment by drugs, alcohol or both.
The Collision Reporting Centre at police headquarters in downtown Chatham also noted the number of reported crashes jumped by 120 from 1,932 in 2022 to 2,052 last year.
The highest number of collisions happened in October with 219, according to CKPS, with the worst day for crashes being Friday and the worst hour being noon.
Topping the list of worst intersections for collisions are Richmond Street and Lacroix Street with 14 crashes last year, followed by Richmond Street and Keil Drive South with 11, and Grand Avenue West and Keil Drive North along with Queen Street and Richmond Street both with 9 collisions each.
Rounding out the top 10 list is Grand Avenue West at Lacroix, St. Clair, Woods, and Victoria along with McNaughton at Sandys and St. Clair.
Police also said Drug Recognition Experts were used on 19 occasions throughout 2023, a 46 per cent increase over 2022.
The number of RIDE programs last year also went up by six to 36, but fewer vehicles were stopped. Police noted almost 4,100 vehicles were stopped and 41 roadside breath tests were done, netting one impaired driver, eight traffic tickets, and three charges.
The CKPS data also shows a large decrease in traffic tickets issued in 2023 with 3,143, the lowest number in five years.
Police also conducted four vehicle safety blitzes across the municipality last year with the help of the Ministry of Transportation, taking 53 commercial vehicles off the road and resulting in 130 charges. That's the highest since 2020.
