Yellowknife (Aug 15/03) - This summer has been pretty busy for the Yellowknife Fire Department -- at least, where traffic accidents are concerned.

Traffic accidents are up this summer. The Yellowknife Fire Department is urging people to use more caution on the roads. - Merle Robillard/NNSL photo

Fire chief Mick Beauchamp said they don't keep hard stats on traffic accidents, but so far this year they have responded to about eight of them, double the amount from past years.

"We usually plan to go to three or four accidents a year but this year we've already responded to six or eight.

"It's definitely up 100 per cent," he said. "This is an unusual year for us."

Beauchamp said there has never been a lot of traffic in Yellowknife, so they don't have the same statistics and problems as other larger cities.

"Historically Yellowknife has never had a really big problem," he said.

Many of the accidents this year have occurred on the Ingraham Trail. Beauchamp pointed out that it's not because of increased traffic on the highway or road conditions, but careless and unsafe drivers.

"A lot of the accidents are due to high risk behaviour," he said. "People drinking and driving and driving too fast are two of the big factors."

Just last week the fire department responded to a car accident where alcohol might have been a factor.

with the number of accidents increasing, Beauchamp is urging people to drive more carefully.

"I hope that we don't have any more accidents this year," he said.