Man dies in P.E.I. highway accident

One man is dead and three were sent to hospital following a two-vehicle collision outside of Kensington Wednesday morning.

A 25-year-old man from Summerside died in the accident.

It happened in Norboro on Route 2 at about 7:30 a.m. A preliminary investigation by RCMPfound a Ford SUV, driven by the Summersideman, was travelling east when it collided head on with a large utility truck.

The three men in the utility truck were sent to hospital but all have since been released. The Summersideman, the only occupant of the SUV, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A section of Route 2 was closed for about six hours for the police investigation. That investigation continues.

A bad year on the roads

The death on Wednesday is the third this month, and brings the total in 2018 to 13.

Autopsies are pending in some of these cases, which may still be determined as having medical causes. But if the number holds, it will mean the Island has already passed the recent average for fatal accidents on the road.

Since 2010 the average has been 12.9 per year.

To date, there have been fatalities in every month except for May.

• Jan. 8:Bonshaw, 24-year-old man dead.
• Feb. 6:East Point, 71-year-old man dead.
• Feb. 7:Inverness, 53-year-old woman dead.
• Feb. 8:Orwell Cove, 34-year-old man dead.
• March 5:Eldon, 36-year-old woman dead.
• March 8:Pleasant Valley, 23-year-old woman dead.
• March 8:Dunstaffnage, woman dead.
• March 29:Inverness, one dead.
• April 2:Borden-Carleton, 81-year-old man, a pedestrian, dead.
• June 30:Rustico, 1 dead.
• July 3:Newton, 60-year-old man dead.
• July 15:Charlottetown, 62-year-old woman dead.

While 2018 has been a bad compared to recent years, the overall trend on P.E.I. is for fewer fatalities on the roads.

In the 1980s, the average was 25.7 per year. By 2000-2009, that had fallen to 17.7.

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