Calgary Traffic Fatalities: 2026 Already Matching Last Year's Deadly Pace

CALGARY, AB — The city's roads are claiming lives at the same alarming rate that made 2025 the deadliest year in a decade.

Fatal collisions in early 2026 are tracking pace with last year's grim milestone of 38 traffic deaths by December 20, according to reports surfacing today. That 2025 figure represented a 10-year high, with vulnerable road users—pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists—accounting for 65% of fatalities. Fifteen pedestrians alone were killed.

Speed remains the top contributing factor in these crashes.

The Response: More Eyes, More Enforcement

The Calgary Police Service rolled out its 2026 Traffic Safety Plan in November, committing to the city's Joint Safer Mobility Plan 2024-2028. The strategy focuses on increased uniformed officer visibility, expanded checkstop presence, and aggressive community outreach.

CPS is also pushing the province for exemptions to reactivate 51 dormant Intersection Safety Devices capable of speed-on-green enforcement—technology shelved under Alberta's April 2025 automated traffic enforcement restrictions that cost the service $28 million in budget revenue.

The city's putting money where the problem is: Calgary Council approved $7.5 million for Vision Zero street safety improvements in its 2026 budget, part of a broader $201 million infrastructure allocation covering roads, intersections, and streetlights.

The Bigger Picture: A Five-Year Fight

Calgary's Safer Mobility Plan targets a 25% reduction in major injuries and fatalities by 2028. In 2024, the city installed 31 speed cushions and 6 speed humps as physical deterrents. A 12-month pilot program launched last March deploys eight peace officers and two sergeants specifically for playground zone enforcement and noisy vehicle violations.

The Joint "Drive to Zero" campaign—a $100,000 video series launched in September 2025—aims to hammer home the human cost of every collision.

But infrastructure takes time. Education takes repetition. And enforcement requires resources stretched thin by provincial policy changes.

Meanwhile, the count continues. Every crash that matches last year's pace is another family changed forever, another intersection that becomes a memorial, another data point in a trend the city is fighting to reverse.

The question isn't whether Calgary will exceed 2025's death toll. It's whether the combination of enforcement, engineering, and education can bend the curve before more lives are lost on streets that should be getting safer, not deadlier.