![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/70c8fc80.png\")
<\/p>\nThe soaring number of people killed on Calgary roads shows no sign of letting up, despite pleas from the city and police for people to slow down and pay more attention to their surroundings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Calgary police said there were nearly 8,700 crashes between Jan. 1 and April 30 of this year, and about 900 of them have involved injuries to pedestrians and motorists.<\/p>\n
While the total number of crashes is down compared with last year, when there were just over 9,500 crashes, there have been 10 people killed this year, including five pedestrians.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s two more deaths than during the same period in 2025 and puts Calgary on pace to surpass last year\u2019s grim total of 38 fatal crashes<\/a>, including 15 pedestrians, which was the highest total in more than a decade.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWhile the total number of crashes is down so far this year, compared with 2025, there have been more fatalities on Calgary roads.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Jacob Lamb, a professor at the University of Calgary\u2019s Schulich School of Engineering, says research from across North America shows that increased urbanization and the increasing size of vehicles are factors in many crashes.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cAs we move into the 21st century \u2014 in general, as well, vehicles got a lot larger \u2014 we saw a massive increase in SUVs over sedans. So right now it\u2019s more than 90 per cent, I believe, at last count of vehicles sold in Canada are SUV class or above. These vehicles are taller, tend to have worse visibility, actually \u2014 even though they might feel that they have better visibility for them \u2014 particularly vulnerable road users, so pedestrians and cyclists,\u201d Lamb said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rate of incident for people within a vehicle has gone down in a per-kilometre basis [but] we\u2019re seeing the opposite effect for people outside of those vehicles, which is very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tJacob Lamb, a professor of engineering at the University of Calgary, says the trends we are seeing are partly the result of urban planning decisions made decades ago.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Reducing the number of crashes, Lamb said, will need to involve not just drivers and vehicles, but also safer road designs and long-term urban planning, which is part of what the City of Calgary\u2019s Safer Mobility<\/a> and Vision Zero<\/a> plans \u2014 to reduce the number of serious injuries and fatalities in the city \u2014 are about.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAs an example of what is possible with the proper planning, Jacob Lamb, a professor in civil engineering at the University of Calgary, points to Helsinki, Finland, a city similar in size to Calgary, where he says there have been no road deaths since July 2024.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tISMO PEKKARINEN \/ LEHTIKUVA via AP\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore on Traffic As an example of what is achievable, he points to Helsinki, Finland, where the population of the metropolitan area is more than 1.5 million people and it has a similar climate to Calgary, but where Lamb says there have been no deaths on its roads since July 2024.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we look at the rate \u2014 a per capita incidence \u2014 it is vastly much lower than Calgary. And we can compare a lot of things that Helsinki is doing to have achieved this vision zero. They\u2019ve redesigned streets to make them safer intersections, elevated crosswalks, improved lighting. They\u2019ve lowered their speed limit across the city, which Calgary did to 40 in many places, but in Helsinki, it is now 30,\u201d Lamb said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve encouraged a lot more active mobility, cycling and public transit enhancements as well as stepping up enforcement. So recognizing that vision zero that\u2019s part of the Calgary Safe Mobility Plan, that safe system approach of tackling and addressing all those different contributors to road collisions, the speeds, the road users themselves, the vehicles, the road design and the land use plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n Lamb says the trends Calgary is now seeing are the result of decisions made decades ago and changing them will take time, so we may not see the benefits of any changes now being made for decades to come.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:53 \n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The soaring number of people killed on Calgary roads shows no sign of letting up, despite pleas from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,194774,48,1890],"class_list":["post-656711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-fatal-crashes","tag-canada","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Traffic_Enforcement_Michael_King_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto radar returning to 3 Calgary intersections\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n