A spokeswoman said, "given the nature of police work, it is little wonder the RCMP gets in more collisions than other branch of government". "We are the only government agency involved in active policing. "The RCMP fleet is the largest in the federal government, other than National Defense, and our officers and vehicles are on the road 24/7," Cpl. Laurence Trottier wrote in an email according to this press source. "The RCMP is also the only government agency that must travel in all types of weather, in order to do our work. "That, inherently, puts us in the position where we are actually pursuing violators, criminals, etc. who are obviously trying to evade capture, and this, sometimes, results in a collision. "We are also parked at the side of high speed highways, and get hit by impaired and distracted drivers, which no other government organization is put into this vulnerable position".
Mounties are not the only ones banging up their vehicles. Staff at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency got in at least 999 accidents, at a cost of nearly $2.4 million. No one from the CFIA was available for comment. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans came in third, with at least 749 accidents, that cost $1.6 million, followed by the Correctional Service of Canada, with at least 647 accidents that also cost $1.6 million. Other departments that got in a significant number of fender benders include the Canada Revenue Agency, Parks Canada, Agriculture, Human Resources and Skills Development, and Transport Canada. Accidents in government vehicles account for only a small fraction of the country's overall collisions. Statistics, published by Transport Canada show, between 2000 and 2009, there were nearly 1.5 million motor-vehicle collisions that caused injury or death in Canada. No data is available showing the number of collisions in which no one was hurt or killed.