The number of people killed on roads in Bradford and Innisfil is on the rise.
South Simcoe Police Service Insp. Julio Fernandes presented the operational update for September during the police services board meeting at the North Division building in Innisfil on Oct 23.
With two months still remaining, the report shows there have already been seven fatal motor vehicle collisions in the two towns so far this year, just one fewer than the eight in all of 2018, which has had the greatest number of fatal collisions since 2015.
Recent crashes include when 88-year-old Giselle Gutsche was struck by a vehicle and killed while walking along the gravel shoulder of Sideroad 10 on Monday Sept. 30.
While it’s not uncommon for Bradford to see more collisions than Innisfil in any given month, the report shows the number of fatal collisions in Bradford has been trending downward from four in 2020 to two so far in 2024.
Meanwhile that has been outpaced by the growing number of fatal collision in Innisfil which has increased from one in 2020 to five so far in 2024.
After the meeting, Fernandes explained Innisfil, which is less centralized, tends to see more traffic on rural arterial roads with long distances between intersections where people are more likely to speed. That can lead to situations where people might not have enough time to stop if cross-traffic pulls out.
“The longer the stretch, the higher the speeds, the more probability it will be a fatal as opposed to a personal injury,” he said. “That’s why Innisfil would account for more fatals.”
He pointed to a fatal collision in Churchill on Sept. 28 as an example of what can happen.
Past Churchill, Fernandes warned people have been caught driving at “highway speeds,” and the service’s traffic unit regularly conducts both speed enforcement and education campaigns across each town in an attempt to address the issue.
The most common locations for collisions in September continued to be along Holland Street West in Bradford as well as Innisfil Beach Road and Sideroad 20 in Innisfil.
Beyond just traffic, the report showed 2,885 total calls for service in September 2024, about a 19-per-cent increase from the 2,420 calls in September 2023.
Fernandez looked to see if there were any specific causes for the increase, but couldn’t pinpoint any particular driving force.
“Nothing jumped out at me,” he said. “It just fluctuates.”
As usual the calls were split about 50/50 between both towns, but Fernandes noted that 41 came through the service's new online reporting tool.
Missing persons calls were down by half from 18 in September last year to just nine during the same time this year, and calls about fraud saw a similar decline from 32 to just 15.
Meanwhile, calls for theft over $5,000 jumped from two to seven.
Uncommon for this time of year, calls for intimate partner violence (IPV) increased by about 63 per cent from 38 in September last year to 62 in the same time this year.
Fernandes explained spikes in IPV are sometimes seen in the summer and more commonly in the winter, but found nothing to indicate why it happened last month.
“This time of year is kind of odd,” he said.
The issue gained additional exposure last year as municipalities declared violence against women and intimate partner violence as an epidemic in Ontario.
While it’s best to report IPV as soon as it happens, Fernandes understands victims may not always feel safe doing so, and advised that they can also report anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Anyone looking for help dealing with the impacts of IPV can also contact Victim Services Simcoe County by phone at 705-725-7025, ext. 2120, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or 1-866-923-3938 after hours, or by email at [email protected].
