'Grim picture': OPP describing sharing the roads between transport trucks, other drivers

OPP cruiser in this file image.

The Ontario Provincial Police says 20 per cent of fatal collisions in its jurisdictions involved transport trucks this year.

"The data paints a grim picture of how commercial and non-commercial drivers have been sharing the road," the OPP said in a news release on Thursday.

Speeding, following too closely and improperly passing other drivers are among the unsafe practices that resulted in crashes and claimed the lives of 31 people in the OPP’s jurisdiction this year, reads the release.

According to the OPP's data, 86 per cent of the crashes were caused by non-commercial drivers, while 14 per cent were the fault of commercial ones.

The OPP is asking everyone to drive safely. It's also reminding people to make sure their vehicles are kept up to the standards required by law.

"Aggressive and careless drivers have no place on our roads, especially when sharing the road involves large commercial vehicles. Tragically, many families again this year are paying a devastating price - the senseless, preventable loss of their loved ones - because of drivers who make a conscious decision to not share our roads safely," said OPP commissioner Thomas Carrique.

Ontario Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, adds that everyone has the right to return home safely after hitting the road.

"That is why our government is cracking down on dangerous and impaired driving and increasing enforcement of commercial vehicles to keep Ontario's highways among the safest in North America," Sarkaria said.

The OPP investigated 77,076 collisions in 2023 -- 8,622 of which involved transport trucks, police say.