Crash injuries shatter lives

When Marilyn blinked her eyes open, she didn't recognize the man standing in front of her.

It was just five weeks after she tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend, Jeff. The pair had dated for 13 years, and decided to get married on July 7, 2007 -- 7/7/7 -- a lucky number. Jeff had just bought Marilyn her first motorcycle, and the two had plans of riding off on the open road.

But from her hospital bed, hooked up to multiple tubes, Marilyn didn't know who Jeff was or what the word "husband" even meant.

"It's hard because I did not get to enjoy it," Marilyn said, tears welling up in her eyes. "When someone gets married, they're supposed to enjoy the first year. It's too late.... I can't get that back."

Fast fix

WINNIPEG - They've launched a public campaign urging drivers to "just slow down," stepped up monitoring and enforcement and rolled out red-light cameras to bust drivers who blow through intersections.

So when police set out this spring to see how fast people drive on Bishop Grandin Boulevard, the results were shocking.

In April, police set up a "speed spy" data recorder to log the speeds of vehicles and within one hour clocked four people driving at speeds at least 50 kilometres per hour above the posted limit of 80 km/h.

It's happening elsewhere, too.

INTERACTIVE MAP: A bad day on Winnipeg streets

This map shows the location of hundreds of crashes that took place on Winnipeg streets on Feb. 9, 2009, when freezing rain frosted streets with a slick coat of ice, creating hazardous driving conditions across the city.

The unusual February morning marked the worst day for vehicle collisions within the city in a five-year period, with 745 vehicles reported damaged, according to Manitoba Public Insurance collision data.

MPI had detailed location data for about half of those crashes, and that data is mapped below.

Slippery streets take huge toll

It was the dead of winter on Feb. 9, 2009, when a warm spell rolled through Winnipeg.

 The mercury climbed above zero, and though city residents could temporarily ditch their parkas, the unseasonably balmy reprieve wasn’t good news for drivers.

 Freezing rain frosted streets with a slick coat of ice, and crews worked feverishly to sand and salt the roads and unblock storm drains. Those measures didn’t stop the slipping and sliding, however, and by 9 a.m., 319 car accidents had been reported across the city. By noon, another 219 drivers had crashed.

 The unusual February morning marked the worst day for vehicle collisions within the city in a five-year period, with 745 vehicles reported damaged, according to Manitoba Public Insurance collision data. MPI data also show that it’s no coincidence. The five days that recorded the largest number of accidents between 2005 and 2009 all had one thing in common: bad, wintry weather that made for poor driving conditions.

Walking, cycling can be deadly

WINNIPEG - Pedestrians and cyclists have long been a major part of traffic deaths and injuries, Winnipeg police say, and there's increasing cause for concern as more people take up walking or bike riding.

In the last 18 months, for instance, 29 people died on Winnipeg streets in car crashes, and 18 of them were pedestrians or cyclists.

Since 2007, 79 people have died on Winnipeg streets in vehicle collisions, including 36 pedestrians and cyclists.

View an interactive map of the city's road fatalitiesSo far this year, four pedestrians have been killed on Winnipeg roads. Of the 18 serious or fatal crashes that police investigated in 2011 to date, 11 involve pedestrians and two involve cyclists.

Our daily demolition derby

They can happen as you back out of your driveway, stop at a red light or turn onto a busy street in morning rush-hour traffic.

Car crashes can occur anytime, anywhere, to anyone, and records released through a freedom of information request reveal they are so common, an average of 143 are reported to Manitoba Public Insurance on any given day in Winnipeg -- about one collision every 10 minutes.

A staggering 261,875 claims were reported in Winnipeg between 2005 and 2009, the latest available MPI data. That's an average of 52,375 crashes every year.

These are not all major incidents, and claimants did not identify the crash location in about half of all collision reports.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Winnipeg’s top collision locations, 2005 – 2009

This map shows the location of the 150 intersections that recorded the highest volume of collisions between 2005 and 2009, as reported to Manitoba Public Insurance. The Free Press obtained the claims data through a Freedom of Information request.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Winnipeg road fatalities, 2007 – 2011

This map shows number of collision fatalities between 2007 and Aug. 2, 2011.

The data does not include a pedestrian who died after being struck by a snowmobile in Transcona in January 2011, as this incident did not take place on a city street.