These are the most dangerous intersections in the city

There have been 275 collisions at just three intersections along Harvey Avenue in Kelowna this year alone.

The statistics are part of recently updated numbers from ICBC, and local law enforcement say it mainly boils down to driver impatience.

Kelowna fills the top eight places among the ten most dangerous intersections in the Southern Interior, with Harvey and Dilworth Drive ranked at No. 1. There were no fewer than 113 crashes at that location, either within the intersection or the turning lane. That’s a rate of one crash almost every three days.

Next came the junction at Spall Road with 83 incidents, and the one at Cooper Road with 79.

A further four intersections along Harvey/Highway 97 are on the unenviable list: at Gordon Drive, Banks Road, Highway 33, and Leckie Road.

The intersection at Highway 33 and Mayden Road, Mills Road, and Ziprick Road round out the eight problem areas.

Drivers 'pushing their luck'

“Harvey/Highway 97 is a main thoroughway for the entire Okanagan so there’s a lot of volume of cars, and impatience is the biggest part of it,” Cst. Mike Della-Paolera told Kelowna10. “They want to get through the intersections quicker than their allotted time. They’re pushing their luck.”

Della-Paolera highlighted the friction point of the two main groups travelling along Harvey: highway vehicles getting to another destination beyond the city quickly, and locals who use it to get from point A to B.

“Those two [elements] are clashing with each other," he said.

Aside from impatience, he noted there are constant distractions drivers need to guard against including panhandlers, pedestrians, cell phone use, and Christmas lights this time of year.

“You need to drive appropriately. If you can’t make the corner and that green light, then wait for the next one. That’s going to save you a whole lot of headaches in the long run,” he said.

A previous report showed five of the 140 most high-risk intersections in B.C. are in Kelowna resulting in around 80 injuries a year.

Motorists may complain about the volume of traffic on the road, the lack of a second main corridor through the city, too many commercial vehicles, and even the design of certain intersections as Kelowna continues to grow, but Doug MacDonald with ICBC said motorists ultimately have control over how they behave.

“Intersections are built safely, they’re set up with lights, we know the lights are going to change,” he said. “It comes down to driver behavior which we can do something about, no matter what vehicle we’re driving.”