From fender benders to brutal T-bone collisions, some of the worst driving in Metro Vancouver is being exposed on YouTube.
The Greater Vancouver Crash Compilations series, comprised of dashcam footage from Burnaby, Richmond and Vancouver, has already gone viral with more than 100,000 combined views.
The shocking behaviour on display ranges from truly terrible lane-changes to red light-running to parking lot lapses.
One thing all of the incidents have in common, according to Young Drivers of Canada, is lack of proper attention.
“They are good people making bad decisions,” regional education manager Kurtis Strelau said.
Most of the crashes could have been prevented if the drivers involved, including the ones who had the right-of-way, were alert behind the wheel, he added.
“They aren’t reading traffic patterns, they’re trusting the other driver. You don’t even know these people, why would you trust them with your lives?”
Assuming other drivers will make the right choices can be a deadly mistake; almost half of the people who die on the road aren’t at fault.
Strelau said motorists shouldn’t even take driving through a green light for granted.
“People who completely trust a green light to go drive me wild,” he said. “A green light means proceed if safe to do so.”
The YouTube channel has spurred talk that Vancouver has the worst drivers in Canada, though the statistics don’t necessarily back that up.
Province-to-province comparisons from Statistics Canada show Yukon, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island had the most deadly crashes per capita in 2011, while B.C. came in eighth.
For non-fatal crashes, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Yukon topped the list while B.C. was ninth.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s St. John Alexander
