BIG 5: York Region's most deadly intersections revealed

Most intersections situated in one York Region community

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 7, 2016
By Jeremy Grimaldi

The five most dangerous intersections in York Region are, for the most part, directly related to volume of traffic, according to Brian Titherington, the region’s director of road and traffic operations. Statistics show between 90 to 95 per cent of all North American crashes are due to driver error.

1. Hwy. 7 and Weston Road, Vaughan, is the busiest intersection in the region by volume, has shops on every side, two entranceways to Hwy. 400 and multiple double left-hand turns.
   
   
2. Major Mackenzie Drive and Hwy. 400 offramp, Vaughan, is currently under construction that is expected to improve safety. However the danger remains. The improvements include "cleaning up the grid", according to Titherington, turning it into a more "urban street".
   
   
3. Weston and Rutherford roads, Vaughan, is always plagued by plenty of volume, especially during rush hour traffic.
   
   
4. Hwy. 7 and Keele Street, Vaughan, is well-trodden route for industrial-sized trucks and has two left turns on each entry into the intersection. However, Titherington notes a new nearby Rapidway is under construction. The good news is that in Markham, where the rapid way was recently completed, Titherington said, crashes were down 25 per cent.
   
   
5. Yonge Street and Green Lane, Newmarket is indicative of a rural road morphing into a suburban road very quickly, possibly explaining some of the danger surrounding the intersection. Titherington said the road not only escalates in speed from 60 km/h to 80 km/h near the intersection but also gives motorists plenty more to look at, with a largely barren road turning into one involving shops, plazas and drivers turning into and out of parking lots. Traffic at this site might soon be relieved by the connection of Bathurst St. to Hwy. 11.

Red-light cameras, currently only positioned at Number 1 and 5, have heralded a huge decrease in the number of t-bone crashes at the region's intersections: At Green Lane and Yonge Street, collisions fell from 14 in 2013 to four in 2014. At Hwy. 7 and Weston Road, they dropped from 15 to nine. In all, Titherington said there has been an almost 50 per cent drop in collisions at all 20 intersections, falling from 71 collisions to 37.