The 10 most dangerous winter roads in Canada, according to crash data

Open this photo in gallery:

A great man once said, “The most dangerous road is the one you’re on.” That man was me and I said it 15 second ago, and you know, it’s as true now as it was 16 seconds ago. However mind-blowing, such bumper sticker philosophy is not of much practical use to drivers.

Enter Samsara, an American company that provides artificial intelligence-powered hardware and software to manage physical operations such as commercial fleets. Samsara just released the results of a study that reveals Canada’s 10 most dangerous winter roadways. Winter is the most dangerous season, when 37 per cent of crashes occur, followed by 31 per cent in the spring. The fewest (14 per cent) occur in the fall, presumably because drivers are tired from crashing so much the rest of the year.

No. 1 is Erieau Road in Ontario, located on a thin peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Erieau Road is two lanes running between Chatham-Kent and the village Erieau along the lakeshore’s shoreline curves. It’s particularly dangerous in winter, when cold air moving over Lake Erie’s warm waters creates heavy localized lake-effect snowfalls.

No. 10 is Toronto’s much-loathed stretch of Highway 401. This hellish drive between Pearson airport and Scarborough challenges those who do not wish to crash with high density, spray and rapid refreeze on overpasses. Not to mention the thousands of horrible drivers who should have their licences revoked but are somehow still on the road.

Open this photo in gallery:

Here’ the complete list:

1. Erieau Road – Erieau Peninsula lakeshore (Ont.)
2. Trans-Canada Highway – Rogers Pass and Yoho National Park (B.C.)
3. Trans-Canada Highway – Banff–Lake Louise corridor (Alta./B.C. border)
4. Yellowhead Highway – Jasper–Hinton corridor (Alta.)
5. Yellowhead Highway – McBride–Tête Jaune Cache (B.C.)
6. Highway 17 – Kenora–Dryden (Ont.)
7. Highway 11 – Hearst–Kapuskasing (Ont.)
8. Queen Elizabeth Way – Burlington Skyway (Ont.)
9. Highway 401 – Mississauga interchange complex at the 401/403/410 (Ont.)
10. Highway 401 Express/Collectors – Toronto core (Ont.) Collector

Samsara researchers analyzed thousands of crash coordinates and discovered clear patterns from data collected between 2022 and 2025. They found the risk of a crash concentrated in specific geographic “hotspots” where weather, terrain, traffic mix and wildlife movement conspire to create dangerous conditions. They identified hotspots in “Trans-Canada’s alpine segments, northern Ontario’s moose corridors, the GTA’s 401 collector–express convergence points, and coastal fog belts in British Columbia and Quebec” that are particularly subject to “elevated winter danger.”

“Primary national corridors like the 401, QEW, and Trans-Canada Highway have structural or environmental challenges such as complex interchanges, steep grades, elevated sections or exposure to wind and rapidly changing temperatures,” Kelly Soderlund, Samsara’s head of insights, said in an email from San Francisco. “Some thoroughfares, like Highway 17, are critical connectors between hubs, leaving drivers with no alternative routes in severe weather. These factors create conditions where, per kilometre, the likelihood of an incident is higher during winter, regardless of the number of vehicles on the road.”

Samsara’s findings were culled from commercial fleets, such as trucking companies, but they apply to passenger vehicles. “There aren’t ‘truck problems,’ “The data offers a warning that winter risk is rising in places and times that drivers may not expect it and knowing these patterns is key to staying safe.”

Chief among these patterns is the afternoon-to-evening refreeze. Twenty-four per cent of crashes happen between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. when pavement temperatures drop rapidly and black ice can form.

“The late afternoon refreeze window is consistently the most dangerous time to drive,” said Soderlund. “If people can shift errands or commutes outside that window, they avoid the combination of falling temperatures, growing congestion and reduced visibility that drives up crash rates. The same goes for the busy holiday season, when traffic volume alone increases the likelihood of incidents.”

Speaking of which – we’re currently finishing up what Samsara refers to as the “Ramp Up to Christmas” in which collision rates almost double. They increase to 0.12 crashes per million kilometres driven from 0.01. This builds between Dec. 22 and 24, as pre-holiday travel, trucking and early-evening refreeze collude to cause havoc. The crash rate rises by 102 per cent, peaking on Dec. 24 (as so many of us do) making the day of Santa’s annual holiday ride the “highest-risk day of the week.”

Most consumer vehicles come with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Think: automatic emergency braking and forward collision and departure warnings. ADAS is “largely reactive to a critical event,” said Soderlund, but in the future, passenger vehicle traffic could benefit from solutions already being used by commercial fleets.

Fleet technology uses “AI-powered dash cams and telematics to shift behavioural changes in real time and proactively,” said Soderlund. “It doesn’t just warn you of a lane change – it uses computing to detect distractions like phone use or drowsiness, or aggressive driving like hard braking and tailgating and provides an instant, in-cab audio alert to self-correct before the situation becomes critical.” The goal to get ahead of the “risk curve.”

Until then, as a great man once said, “Let’s be careful out there.” And that man was Sergeant Phil Esterhaus as portrayed by actor Michael Conrad on the 1980s hit TV cop drama Hill Street Blues.

Open this photo in gallery: