Certain driving behaviors need to change thanks to the worsening road conditions.
“So we have the fog starting to come in this time of year, starting to see the ice in the morning on the vehicles which means the roads got ice on them as well so we really have to adjust ourselves to how we need to drive when we’re out there this time of year,” says Doug MacDonald, ICBC Road Safety Manager.
A recent survey from ICBC shows only 48% of drivers who were approached plan to or already have their winter tires on.
“We’re seeing more people buying winter tires, upgrading their winter tires making sure they’re not using just an all-season type of tire and when we see the number of people that are actually putting winter tires on we know that the people are starting to see the importance again of putting those on,” added MacDonald.
“If we look at a month like October, we’d be looking at something along the lines of approximately 17 injured or killed people per month and then going into December we see the crash and fatality numbers are about 40 per month.”
In North Central BC, casualty crashes double every year as the weather worsens.
(Files from Brendan Pawliw with MYPRINCEGEORGENOW)