It’s the most dangerous crossing in Trail.
The corner of Bay Avenue and Victoria Street (Highway 3) may be one of the busiest in the city, but it is also where you are most likely to have a meeting of the minds with another vehicle.
According to statistics released from ICBC, the corner has had the most intersection crashes and casualties in the last five years in the Silver City.
With 47 crashes recorded in a five-year stretch, from 2007 to 2011, with 19 recorded casualties in that same time span.
Those figures don’t surprise tow truck driver John Foglia of J.F. Auto Centre.
“At that corner people are not trying to beat the yellow light but the bloody red light,” he said. “That’s how bad it is.”
The intersection is the busiest, he conceded, but the entire corridor along Victoria St. near the Trail Memorial Centre is.
The way the lights are timed is an issue, he said, and the compressed nature of the area and high volumes of traffic spells trouble.
“The lights are slowing people down and they are getting frustrated, so they rush to make the next light,” he said.
The statistics for the Bay and Victoria intersection were more than double the amount than any other intersection in the city.
Pine Avenue and Victoria Street were second at 22 crashes, while further upstream when Victoria St. becomes Bailey St. 20 crashes occurred where the highway met Second Avenue.
The corner of Cedar Avenue and Victoria Street witnessed 16 crashes, while Tamarac Avenue and Victoria Street had 14 crashes.
Devito Drive and Highway 3B had 13 crashes, Hwy. 3B and McBride Street was 10, while Highway Drive and Hwy 3B had seven.
Bailey Street and Third Avenue had six crashes, while Highway 22 and Rossland Avenue also had six.
The figures were recorded through ICBC data of March 31, 2012. It excluded crashes in parking lots and incidents involving parked vehicles.
The data only includes crashes where sufficient location information was available to determine a latitude and longitude. The locations were approximate.
The Bailey and Second Avenue intersection was host to 10 casualties in the last five years, nine less than Victoria and Bay Avenue. A casualty is a crash resulting in injury or fatality.
Pine and Victoria had seven, while Cedar and Victoria, Devito and Hwy. 3B, and Hwy 3B and McBride all had five incidents occur.
Tamarac and Victoria had four casualties, while Bailey and Third, Bingay Road and Hwy 22, and Hwy 22 and Rossland Avenue all had three casualties.