Halifax Road Safety Report Reveals Sharp Rise in Fatal Collisions Despite Drop in Serious Injuries
Halifax's 2025 annual road safety report shows fatal collisions increased from 11 to 20, while serious injuries decreased. Residents and advocates are calling for stronger infrastructure changes as micromobility incidents rise.
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) recorded a significant increase in fatal traffic collisions in 2025, according to the city’s annual road safety report presented by Sam Trask, supervisor of road safety and transportation. The data reveals that fatal collisions rose to 20 in 2025, up from 11 in 2024, despite a slight decrease in serious injury collisions.
While total reported collisions to Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP decreased by five percent to 5,959, the severity of incidents remains a growing concern. Serious injury collisions totaled 133 in 2025, down from 141 in 2024. However, the rate of severe incidents remains above targets set by the Vision Zero strategy. Of the 153 fatal and serious injury collisions in 2025, one-third were single-vehicle crashes associated with speed, impairment, or lack of experience. Additionally, 45 per cent of these severe collisions involved aggressive, distracted, or impaired driving.
The report highlights specific risks for vulnerable road users. Pedestrian fatalities quadrupled from one in 2024 to four in 2025. Motorcycles were involved in seven of the 20 fatal collisions, marking the highest total since data collection began in 2022. Collisions involving micromobility users—such as bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters—also rose significantly, increasing from 89 in 2024 to 111 in 2025. Although there were no fatal micromobility collisions reported in 2025, eight serious injuries occurred among these users.
Residents and advocates have urged the city to implement stronger infrastructure changes and leadership in response to the rising death toll. Brendan Doherty, owner of the Old Triangle Irish Alehouse, spoke at the transportation committee meeting after an employee was struck by a work truck near the Macdonald Bridge. Martyn Williams of Vision Zero Kjipuktuk-Halifax criticized current road safety spending as "timid" and ineffective on high-risk roads, arguing that Halifax does not compare favourably to other cities due to higher fatal and serious collision rates. Conversely, Sam Trask noted that HRM compares favourably on a population-adjusted basis but acknowledged that rates remain above strategy goals.
Early data for 2026 indicates continued challenges. From January 1 to July 31, 2026, Halifax recorded four fatal collisions and 73 serious injury collisions. In mid-July 2026, Nouman Ali, a Dalhousie University professor, died after a driver opened a pickup truck door into his bicycle path. To address these issues, new collision analysis software will be used to prioritize road safety projects based on traffic volume and crash locations.