TRGO Committee News Release

The State of Road Safety

in Canada in

1998

Prepared for

Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators

Standing Committee on Road Safety Research and Policies

By

Transport Canada Road Safety

and Motor Vehicle Regulation Directorate

330 Sparks Street, Tower ‘C’

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0N5

September 2000

Introduction:

This report summarizes the trends of some of the important national road safety indicators and commercial vehicle safety data in Canada, as well as some frequently used international indicators. 

The Executive Summary sets out Canada’s vision of having the safest roads in the world, and provides a general overview of current issues in road safety in 1998.

Section 1 illustrates long term trends from 1988 to 1998 and examines such indicators as road user fatalities and injuries, impaired driver fatalities, the most noteworthy program measures (seat belt use rate and the number of persons charged with impaired driving), as well as the most readily available performance measures of road safety initiatives during this period (occupant, motorcyclist, pedestrian and bicyclist casualty rates).

Section 2 examines some of the most relevant indicators of commercial vehicle safety in Canada, during the 1994 to 1998 period.  Vehicle condition, driver condition and action, as well as victim data according to vehicle type involved are presented.

Section 3 responds to the need to evaluate if the Canadian vision of the safest roads in the world is being met.  International comparisons are provided to show how Canada measures up to the international community in the road safety field.

Road Safety in Canada - 1998 Executive Summary

On October 10, 1996, the Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety agreed to an initiative, entitled Road Safety Vision 2001, to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world.  To this end, the initiative commits all provinces and territories to four safety priorities:

·      raising public awareness of road safety issues;

·      improving communication, coordination and collaboration among road safety agencies;

·      developing more efficient enforcement to deal with problem areas, e.g. impaired driving, non use of seat belts, repeat offenders, high-risk drivers;

·      improving the collection and quality of data to ensure road safety programs are practical and cost effective.

The motor vehicle is the most prevalent form of transportation in Canadian life.  Twenty million licensed drivers used 18 million registered road motor vehicles accounting for 90 percent of all personal travel. Over the past 10 years, traffic deaths have decreased by more than 29 percent, while drivers licensed have increased 20 percent and vehicles registered have increased 15.3 percent.  In 1998, motor vehicle collisions claimed the lives of 2,934 people compared to 83, 48 and 101 in the air, marine and rail modes, respectively.  The number of road user fatalities in 1998 has reached its lowest level in over 40 years, and persons injured at 217,754 in 1998 reached its lowest level since 1977.  Of the 1,092,103 vehicles involved in 601,153 casualty and property damage collisions, 4,183 vehicles were involved in fatal collisions, while 271,830 and 816,090 were involved in personal injury and property damage collisions, respectively.

Among driver fatalities, the percentage of those tested for use of alcohol and found to be above the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit of 80 mg % has decreased from 40.3 percent in 1988 to 32.8 percent in 1998, up 1.1 percentage points from 1997. Over the ten-year period, the percentage has been declining overall and reached the lowest level of 31.7 percent in 1997. Of the male driver fatalities tested for alcohol, 36.7 percent were found to be legally impaired in 1998 compared to 44.1 percent of those tested in 1988. In the case of female drivers, the percentage of those tested and found to be over the legal limit of 80 mg % BAC, increased and decreased throughout the period with 6 years above 20 percent and the remainder of years below. The percentage of those female drivers tested and found to be above the legal limit decreased to the lowest level of  15.4 percent in 1997 and increased to 18.8 percent in 1998.  Impaired driver fatalities decreased 35 percent from 1988 to 1998, while the number of persons charged decreased 42 percent over the same period.  When the numbers of impaired driver fatalities and persons charged with impaired driving offences were measured in terms of 100,000 licensed drivers, the decreases were more impressive at 45 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

The national estimate of passenger car driver shoulder seat belt use wearing rate was 91.9 percent in the June 1998 survey, a slight increase of 0.4 percentage points from the results of the 1997 survey.  This wearing rate has reached a plateau and remained at 91.5 percent to 91.9 percent range from 1994 to 1998.

In this report, the term Commercial Vehicle refers to trucks, tractors, trailers, or some combination, exceeding a registered gross vehicle weight of 4 500 kg; or a bus designed, constructed and used for the transportation of passengers with a designated seating capacity of more than 10, including the driver, but excluding the operation for personal use.  In short, the term refers to those vehicles subject to the National Safety Code for Motor Carriers.  Commercial vehicles, particularly heavy trucks, involved in traffic collisions continue to be a subject of media and public concern.

For the period 1994 to 1998, commercial vehicles accounted for an average of 4.7 percent of all vehicles involved in reportable traffic collisions, while these vehicles represented an average of 11.9 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal collisions, 3.7 percent  of all vehicles involved in personal injury collisions and 5.0 percent of vehicles in collisions resulting in property damage.  The number of commercial vehicles involved in fatal, personal injury and property damage collisions increased in 1997 and consequently reversed the downward trend of the previous few years. However, their involvement decreased again in 1998 so that commercial vehicles involved in fatal collisions decreased one full percentage point to 11.8 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal collisions.

The greatest number of fatalities and injuries were in the 15-24 year old age group at 24 percent and 26 percent, respectively in 1998.  Overall, fatalities decreased 10.1 percent  from 1994 to 1998 with the most significant decreases recorded in the 0-4 age group (41 percent), 5-14 age group (16 percent), 15-19 years (22 percent), 25-34 age group (16 percent), and 55-64 age group (12 percent). Fatalities increased by 4 percent in the 65 and over age group – the only age group to increase over the period.

Using Transport Canada’s estimates of the costs of a fatality, an injury and a collision, the total estimated cost of road accidents in 1998 to the Canadian economy was $10.5 billion.  If the willingness to pay methodology were used, the amount would increase to about $25 billion.

The map of Canada shows the provincial and territorial distributions of population, the number of casualty and property damage collisions, the number of road motor vehicles registered, and the number of fatalities in 1998.  The chart displays the fatalities per 10,000 motor vehicles registered for 1998 by province and territory.