This summer is shaping up as one of Southwestern Ontario’s deadliest for motorcyclists, already matching last year’s tally and accounting for nearly half of the province’s fatal crashes this year, provincial police say.
This summer is shaping up as one of Southwestern Ontario’s deadliest for motorcyclists, already matching last year’s tally and accounting for nearly half of the province’s fatal crashes this year, provincial police say.
To date, 12 of the 25 fatal motorcycle crashes on OPP-patrolled roads and highways this year have occurred in the West Region that stretches from Windsor to Halton and as far north as Bruce County, OPP said Thursday.
The dozen deaths match the region’s 10-year annual average, with half of 2022’s riding season still to go. Last year at this time, OPP West Region had recorded seven fatal motorcycle crashes.
This year’s sharp jump prompted police to hold a rare news conference Thursday ahead of the Civic Holiday long weekend.
“As you can see, we have a problem with deadly consequences,” said Insp. Shawn Johnson of OPP West Region’s traffic and marine unit.
All 12 of the region’s fatal bike crashes were deemed preventable, happening “in clear, sunny, dry” conditions, he said.
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Though no riders have died in Middlesex County so far this summer, the county has Ontario’s third-highest number of motorcycle deaths in the last decade with 14. Essex County tops the list with 19, followed by Toronto with 16.
The summer of 2016 was Southwestern Ontario’s deadliest to date, with 19 fatal motorcycle crashes. The lowest tally was recorded in 2012 with seven deaths that year.
In three out of four fatal bike crashes, motorcyclists were at fault, Johnson said.
“These are not accidents,” he said. “All of the collisions that have happened on our roads this year were preventable.”
Over the last decade, half of Ontario motorbike fatalities involved riders aged 45 to 64, and 87 per cent of those killed were men. In this region, men aged 56 to 64 have made up nearly a third of this year’s motorcycle deaths.
“We are not talking about stereotypical, risk-taking young riders on a racing bike,” Johnson said.
Speeding, loss of control and failing to yield at intersections are among the leading causes of this year’s crashes, Johnson said.
That so many fatalities are being attributed to motorcyclists suggests they may be riding beyond their skill level or not defensively enough, said Michael Harrison, a Fanshawe College motorcycle instructor.
“If they’re getting killed at intersections or by people coming in from side streets. . . then they are not scanning properly,” he said. “They are not taking the proper precautions.”
Besides wearing proper riding gear, defensive riding is motorcyclists’ best protection, given the consequences are more severe for riders than car drivers in a crash, Harrison said.
“We don’t have airbags, we don’t have collapsing frames that are going to protect you,” he said. “The only protection you have is yourself.”