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If a bus crash like the one that has shattered the small city of Humboldt were going to happen anywhere, the grim reality is that it was statistically most likely to happen in Saskatchewan.

Between 2007 and 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, Saskatchewan had either the highest or second-highest rate of road fatalities in the country.

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Death rates have been worse only in Prince Edward Island and Yukon, both of which have small populations that can make for wild swings in statistical data. A single car accident, for example, can double the per-capita fatality rate in a given year.

Saskatchewan by contrast, which has a population of more than one million, has suffered consistently high fatality rates — double the rate of Manitoba in 2010, double the rate of British Columbia in 2011, double the rate of Alberta in 2012 and double the national average every year since 2008.

Among the provinces, Saskatchewan also had the highest rate of deaths per licensed driver between 2007 and 2014.