The TTC’s insurance costs surged last year, pushing the amount the transit agency spent to settle accident and other claims to $33.6 million.

According to figures provided by the transit agency, the money it paid out in 2016 was a 50-per-cent increase compared to 2014, when the TTC settled $22.3 million worth of claims. It was also higher than the $29.4 million it spent in 2015.

The vast majority of the settlement amounts were for payments for crashes involving transit vehicles, with a smaller portion made up of “general liability” claims for incidents such as slips and falls on TTC property.

Agency spokesperson Stuart Green said that the number of annual claims is actually declining slightly, but the higher payout for 2016 was the result of a number of particularly costly settlements.

Green wouldn’t say whether the rising costs were a concern for the TTC, which pays for the claims out of its operating budget. But he asserted that “all the claims are looked at on an individual basis” to ensure they’re reasonable.

“We have experts in areas of claim settlement who determine whether or not these are fair claims, and then once the claim is reviewed … what would be deemed a fair payment is paid out,” he said.

The settlement figures were included in collision data that is not publicly available but that the TTC provided after the Star requested it.

The numbers cover the three-year period between 2014 and 2016. During that time, the agency’s buses, streetcars, and Wheel-Trans vehicles were involved in 11,498 crashes.

Green said that the “vast majority of these would be of a minor nature” and resulted in no significant injuries or damage to property. They include collisions with pedestrians, cyclists, motor vehicles, and fixed objects.

He stated that while the number of crashes has risen in recent years, that’s because the TTC has increased service and put more vehicles on the road. The rate of crashes — which is measured by the number of collisions per kilometres travelled — has not increased.

The TTC classified roughly three quarters of all the collisions as “not preventable,” a term the agency uses to denote that the transit operator wasn’t fault.

The percentage of collisions that involved pedestrians and were deemed not preventable was higher than for other categories. Of the 187 collisions with pedestrians, the TTC determined that its drivers weren’t at fault in 80.7 per cent of them.

The figure stands in contrast to a pedestrian safety review conducted by the city in 2015, which found that motorists of all types were at fault for roughly two-thirds of pedestrian injuries.

Green could not immediately explain the discrepancy.

In 2015, following a spate of fatal crashes, the TTC instituted a 12-point plan to enhance bus and streetcar safety. The new policy includes random GPS checks to detect whether operators are speeding, earlier interventions for drivers involved in multiple collisions, and daily “safety talks” from supervisors to alert vehicle operators of potential hazards like bad weather or construction on their routes.

The TTC says the plan has reduced the number of deadly accidents involving its vehicles.

That figures provided by the agency show some drivers have been involved in a high number of collisions since 2014. Thirty-five vehicle operators were involved 10 or more collisions, including one bus driver who racked up 19 crashes. The TTC determined that none of the 19 was preventable.

The most preventable crashes incurred by a single driver was five — a figure reached by three bus drivers and one Wheel-Trans operator.

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Green couldn’t say whether all of the operators with high numbers of collisions were still working for the TTC, but he said the agency has protocols to deal with potential problem drivers.

“If there is an operator who’s involved in something serious, or a number of less serious incidents, we do have options ranging from reassignment to retraining,” he said.

“If we need to, we will reassign an employee from an operator to another duty.”