Submitted by Cedric Hughes on Wed, 10/26/2005 - 07:56
Road Safety Vision 2010 aims to significantly reduce thenumber of motorists killed or seriously injured on Canada’s roads in the 2008 – 2010 period. To achieve this goal the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators [CCMTA] has identified areas of continuing major road safety problems and developed sub-targets for these areas.
Despite the dramatic change in attitude towards drinking and driving, impaired driving remains a problem area. MADD Canada’s current statistics indicate that:
“in 2002, …3,197 individuals were killed in motor vehicle crashes in Canada. At a
minimum 1,161 of these fatalities [36%] involved impaired driving. Moreover, in
MADD Canada's opinion, the 1,161 figure is a conservative estimate, due to the
underreporting that results from the inability to test surviving impaired drivers and
reliance on police reports. …Given the limits on the 1,161 fatalities figure, and
adding in water-related deaths, MADD Canada estimates there are somewhere
between 1,350 and 1,550 impaired crash fatalities in Canada each year (3.7 - 4.3
deaths per day).”
MADD also estimates that, in 2002, of the total number of 377,246 people injured in motor vehicle crashes, roughly 68,470 cases [18%] were caused by impaired driving. This averages out to 188 per day. Again, in 2002, of the total number of 2,078,050 motor vehicles involved in property damage crashes, roughly 226,300 involved impaired driving. This averages out to 620 per day. Depending on the model used, MADD statistics also estimate the cost of impaired driving crashes in Canada to range from 1.8 billion dollars to 10.7 billion dollars. For more details visit: www.madd.ca.
The Vision 2010 goals with respect to decreasing impaired driving are to achieve a 40% decrease in the percentage of road users fatally or seriously injured in crashes involving alcohol. The Standing Committee on Road Safety Research and Policies of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators [CCMTA] has created the Strategy to Reduce Impaired Driving Task Force (STRID 2010) to help achieve these sub-targets. STRID has identified four specific groups on which it intends to focus its intervention efforts: hard-core drinking drivers, new or young drivers, social drinkers and first-time convicted drivers. The STRID recommendations address enforcement, education and legislation.
Two of these recommendations are particularly noteworthy. The first recommends lobbying for increased police resources to help increase the perceived risk of apprehension for drinking and driving. The Province newspaper recently reported that the Langley RCMP in their efforts to help achieve the 40% decrease target have increased their enforcement efforts by increasing road checks, traffic patrols and having general duty members keep an eye out for impaired drivers. These efforts have been effective: 329 impaired drivers were apprehended so far this year compared to 136 last year and a 29% increase in the number of 24-hour suspensions.
The second is the call for sub-models to assist jurisdictions in managing the safety impacts of other potential causes of driving impairment, particularly in the areas of drugs, fatigue, and distractions including cell phones.
To read all the recommendations go to: www.ccmta.ca/english/pdf/strid_strategy_2010.pdf.
Please drive safely.
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