Non-fatal vehicle crashes up year-over-year in 2024: ICBC

B.C.’s automotive insurance provider is sharing its findings from last year’s crash data, which shows non-fatal collisions are up year-over-year.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) found that there were more than 303,000 crashes in the province in 2024 alone. More than 107,000 of those happened at intersections and led to more than 52,000 injured victims.

ICBC spokesperson Brent Shearer tells 1130 NewsRadio that there’s a pretty simple reason that B.C. saw more crashes last year.

“The population in our province is growing, and as a result, there are more people driving vehicles, which can lead to more road congestion and ultimately more crashes,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

Shearer notes that the province has seen a growth in both the number of vehicles on the roads and the number of people with licences.

“We’re also seeing, at the same time, a slight growth in the number of crashes as a result of more vehicles on the road, more people driving,” he explained.

While ICBC has found that the number of collisions has increased over the last five years, it’s expecting that number to level off after 2025.

Shearer explains that the COVID-19 pandemic had such a dramatic impact on the number of vehicles on the roads that over the past three years, the number of crashes has returned to “a more normal pattern that we would have seen prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“You’ve got a steadily growing population, more people driving, more vehicles on our roads. It can lead to more congestion, generally, and with more congestion, we see more crashes,” Shearer said.

Meanwhile, according to the insurance provider’s data, the Alex Fraser Bridge and Cliveden Avenue intersection connecting Delta and Richmond is the worst in the Lower Mainland when it comes to crashes.

That intersection had 481 collisions last year, 40 more than the next worst — 264 Street and 56 Avenue in Langley.

The Knight Street Bridge and Southeast Marine Drive off- and on-ramps saw 352 crashes alone, making it the worst in the City of Vancouver.

As for collisions that involved pedestrians, East Hastings and Main Street was the worst intersection, seeing 37 crashes last year. East Broadway and Commercial Drive also saw 29 crashes in 2024.

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