Backgrounder Ontario Safe Driving Study

Allstate Insurance Company of Canadas Ontario Safe Driving Study ranks communities, as well as regions, by analyzing car collision frequency to identify which communities have the safest drivers according to Allstate data. This study spans a three-year period from 2006-2009 and offers a comparison to the same data from 2003-2006.

Methodology The Number of Collision Claims/100 cars is calculated for 2003-2006 and 2006-2009, based on: o o Communities with at least 900 cars insured by Allstate over the three-year period. More than 25,000 collision claims paid out in each of the designated three-year periods.

Three-year periods were chosen to provide a larger sample for more meaningful analysis. Claims data is limited to collisions for which there was a payout. Claims on comprehensive policies for such incidents as break-ins or vandalism are not included in this analysis. Collision data tracks back to the registered car address. The Number of Collision Claims/100 cars is determined by dividing the total number of paid collision claims by the number of cars insured by Allstate in each community, times 100 cars. Survey data ranks frequency of crashes, not severity of crash. The term cars refers to private passenger vehicles. Allstate Canada claims data is used to establish the rankings.

Community Highlights Communities in the Greater Toronto Area ranked 40 through 49 out of the 49 communities reviewed for the study. St. Thomas ranks as the safest driving community with an average number of collision claims of 2.5/100 cars (2006-2009). St. Thomas showed a 25 per cent improvement from 2003-2006 to 2006-2009.

Regional Highlights Northern Ontario ranks as number one region with the lowest crash rate in Ontario. The Greater Toronto Area ranks as the bottom of the five Ontario regions. Southwestern Ontario is the most improved region from 2003-2006 to 2006-2009.

Regional Breakdown
Region 2006-2009 Number of Collision Claims / 100 cars 3.5 3.9 4.3 4.5 5.5 2006-2009 Ranking (2003-2006 Ranking)

North Central Southwest East GTA

1 2 3 4 5

(1) (2) (4) (3) (5)

Community Breakdown

Community

Region

Population (2006 Census)

2006-2009 Number of Collision Claims / 100 cars

2006-2009 Ranking

(20032006 Ranking)*

St. Thomas Belleville Chatham Welland Sudbury North Bay Amherstburg Thunder Bay Sault Ste. Marie Keswick St. Catherines Innisfil Bowmanville Bradford Kingston Niagara Falls Sarnia Peterborough Windsor

Southwest East Southwest Southwest North North Southwest North North GTA Southwest GTA GTA GTA East Southwest Southwest Central Southwest

36,110 48,821 108,177 50,331 157,857 53,966 21,748 109,140 74,948 21,000 131,989 31,175 31,830 24,039 117,207 82,181 71,419 74,898 216,473

2.5 2.6 3.4 3.4 3.6 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.8 3.8 3.9 3.9 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

(9) (1) (14) (2) (6) (15) (3) (16) (10) (5) (12) (21) (7) (18) (11) (23) (13) (17) (29)

Cornwall Brantford Newmarket Cambridge Georgetown Kitchener Guelph Burlington Hamilton Stouffville Barrie Markham Aurora Ottawa Orillia London Oshawa Woodbridge Oakville Pickering Concord Toronto Mississauga Milton Richmond Hill Bolton Brampton Maple Ajax Thornhill

East Southwest GTA Southwest GTA Southwest Southwest GTA Southwest GTA Central GTA GTA East Central Southwest GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA GTA

45,965 90,192 74,295 120,371 120,371 204,668 114,943 164,415 504,559 24,390 128,430 261,573 47,629 812,129 30,259 352,395 141,590 238,866 165,613 100,273 ** 2,503,281 668,549 53,939 162,704 26,478 433,806 49,388 93,104 106,394

4.3 4.3 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.1 5.1 5.3 5.3 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.8 5.8 5.9 5.9 5.9 6.2 6.5 6.6

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

(4) (22) (20) (35) (8) (25) (19) (26) (30) (32) (39) (40) (28) (31) (24) (33) (37) (27) (34) (43) (48) (44) (41) (36) (42) (NR) (45) (38) (46) (47)

*NR - not ranked **Concord is an unincorporated community in the City of Vaughan (2001)

Communities with the Largest Decrease in Collision Claim Rate

Community Percent Reduction in Collision Claim Rate (2003-06 to 2006-09) 25% 16% 13% 10% 10% 10% 9% 6% 6% 3% Overall Ranking

1. St. Thomas 2. Concord 3. Chatham 4. Cambridge 5. Niagara Falls 6. Innisfil 7. Windsor 8. Thunder Bay 9. North Bay 10. Brampton

1 40 3 23 16 12 19 8 6 46

Communities with the Largest Increase in Collision Claim Rate

Community Percent Increase in Collision Claim Rate (2003-06 to 2006-09) 42% 35% 31% 23% 22% 21% 20% 19% 16% 16% Overall Ranking

1. Cornwall 2. Georgetown 3. Amherstburg 4. Bolton 5. Keswick 6. Welland 7. Woodbridge 8. Orilla 9. Bowmanville 10. Milton

20 24 7 45 10 4 37 34 13 43