Halifax-Dartmouth bridge collisions down 43% since tolls removed, data shows

Nova ScotiaTraffic volume has gone up, but the number of collisions has decreased since last year, according to numbers from Halifax Harbour Bridges.Traffic volume has gone up, but number of collisions has decreased since last yearPreston Mulligan · CBC News · Posted: Oct 08, 2025 4:11 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoAccidents on Halifax bridges down since removal of tollsHalifax Harbour Bridges says accidents are way down on both the MacKay and Macdonald bridges — all thanks to the elimination of tolls. Preston Mulligan has the story.Nova Scotia’s public works minister says he wants to see more data, but he’s optimistic about new numbers that show collisions on the two Halifax harbour bridges are way down since the toll plazas were removed.The Crown corporation that operates the bridges, Halifax Harbour Bridges, says it has seen a 43 per cent reduction in collisions since the tolls came down in March.The bridge commission compared collision numbers from April to September 2024 with the same time period in 2025. It found there were 178 collisions on the MacKay and Macdonald bridges during the six-month span in 2024, but only 101 during the same period this year.”I would caution that it’s only six months worth of data,” said Public Works Minister Fred Tilley. “And as we get more and more data, then it’ll be a more reliable number. But that’s very promising. Any time we can reduce collisions, it’s a great thing.”Collision dataIn April 2024, for example, there were 32 collisions on both bridges. That number dropped to 12 for April 2025 after the tolls were removed. And in August 2024, there were 35 collisions. There were 14 during the same month this year.”As we get more and more data, it will tell us a broader story,” Tilley said. “But I would say that it’s certainly been a success. We’ve seen better flows of traffic. We’ve been able to up the speed limit at MacKay.”The removal of the tolls fulfilled a promise by the governing Tories during last year’s provincial election.Traffic volume dataThe bridge commission also collected data on traffic volumes on both bridges, which revealed a 10 per cent increase in the six months after the tolls were removed in comparison to the same six-month period in 2024.There were a total of 18,931,089 crossings on the two spans from April to September 2025, an increase of 1,719,902 crossings compared to the same period a year earlier.The largest monthly increase of 16.2 per cent was recorded in June 2025, when there were 3,213,243 crossings compared to 2,766,281 in the same month a year ago.For April 2025, there were 2,953,678 crossings, representing an increase of 3.5 per cent from 2,852,714 crossings in April 2024.HHB staff say they’re unable to say precisely why there’s been an increase in traffic, but suggest it could be related to the Houston government’s decision to recall provincial government workers back to the office, along with tourism patterns and population growth. MORE TOP STORIES