Merritt RCMP are seeing an increase in the number of car accidents on area highways this November compared to last year.
“The highways are continuing to keeps us all busy on the weekends,” said RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore.
Through the first nine days of the month, local RCMP have responded to 54 vehicle accidents on the highways surrounding Merritt compared to just eight calls over the same period in November of 2016, Dunsmore told the Herald.
“The weather might have been better last year as well at the beginning of November,” she said, adding that the difference in calls is still a large spike.
On top of those numbers, Merritt RCMP attended 20 accidents on the highways around Merritt over the course of the long weekend between Friday and Monday. Those numbers exclude stats from Central Interior Traffic Services.
Luckily, none of these accident resulted in serious injuries, Dunsmore said.
“A lot of it is just driver error,” she said. “The road conditions are poor in some situations, but if you are driving the proper speed and you’re not following too closely to the vehicle in front you and you have good tires on your vehicle, then you should be fine.”
Police reported attending 29 accidents after the first snowfall of the winter between Nov. 3 and 6.
