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ARTICLE · 13 MAY 2015

The Unexpected Dangers Of Summer Long Weekends

Miller Thomson
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With the sun shining, and weather warming up, Canadians will soon be celebrating the kickoff to summer's long weekend season.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration

With the sun shining, and weather warming up, Canadians will soon be celebrating the kickoff to summer's long weekend season. The Victoria Day Long Weekend is just around the corner, and with it, often comes an unfortunate increase in traffic related deaths and serious injuries.

A recent Alberta study, using half a decade's worth of provincial data, found that fatal accidents jumped by 18 percent on long weekends. While it seems intuitive to blame the fatalities on impaired drivers and speeders, the study found quite the opposite: those causes are actually most prevalent during regular weekends.

On long weekends, however, more drivers are travelling longer distances in vehicles filled with family and/or friends, and they may be visiting unfamiliar territory. Distractions are high, as drivers fiddle with maps, GPS, phones, and other gadgets to find their way. When these distractions are combined with higher traffic volume and higher vehicle occupancy, the chances of

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