Where the Rubber Meets the Road – Reducing Fatal Crashes In BC
Prince George, B.C. – BC is still lagging when it come to the fatalities on its roads and the Provincial Health Officer has set forth 28 recommendations to make roads in BC safer for all users.
The new report ( Where the Rubber Meets the Road) from Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Perry Kendall says B.C.’s fatality rate from motor vehicle crashes (MVC) is 6.2 per 100,000 population. That’s above the national average of 6, and well ahead of Ontario which has the lowest rate in the country at 4.
Although B.C.’s MVC fatality rate has declined by 42.6% between 1996 and 2013, Dr. Kendall says there is still a long way to go.
The top three contributing factors to fatal crashes remain, speed, impairment and distraction.
There have been reductions in crashes involving impairments, but driver distraction as a contributing factor is growing.
The report puts forth 28 recommendations to reduce fatalities, here are some of the highlights:
- Make the default speed in communities 30km/h down from the current 50 km/h . At 30 km/h pedestrians and cyclists have better survivor rates.
- Extend the required zero (0.00) Blood Alcohol Content for new drivers beyond completion of the Graduated Licensing Program, to age 25.
- Set speed limits throughout the province based on roadway type with consideration of the most vulnerable road users who frequent each type of roadway and the associated survivable speed during an MVC for those road users.
- Establish appropriate speed limits for road and weather conditions and increase related driver awareness and education. 14. Implement electronic speed management province-wide
- Establish and resource an independent Centre for Excellence in Road Safety in BC to work in collaboration with the steering committee and working groups for the BC Road Safety Strategy. This centre should be university based with a priority mandate to collect, analyse, and house provincial and community-level data related to road safety and MVCs
- Implement a vehicle safety testing program in BC that requires regular basic vehicle safety checks (e.g., of tires, brakes, steering) as a condition of vehicle insurance and offers incentives to British Columbians to acquire safety technologies.
- Increase the safety of vehicles imported into Canada and BC by requiring vehicles up to 25 years old to meet safety standards (up from the current 15 years) and eliminating the importation of right-hand drive vehicles into the province
- Regulate and set limits on the kind of vehicle modifications allowed in BC. This includes, but is not limited to, restricting how high a vehicle can be raised and prohibiting bull bars in urban areas.
The report also recommends education and awareness programs.
Chart below shows the population and MVC fatalities for the top three contributing factors by Health Authority from 2009 to 2013.
Comments
“Make the default speed in communities 30km/h down from the current 50 km/h . At 30 km/h pedestrians and cyclists have better survivor rates.”
Vs, the current default of 50 where people travel at 70, now it’ll be a default of 30 where people travel at 50 – in other words, lower the speed limit so people will travel at the speed limit we want.
The speed limit on first section of Otway is 50. People still remember it use to be 70, and they still travel at 70, but they use to travel 90 when it was 70. Wouldn’t it be easier if the speed limit meant exactly that.
But isn’t it all a lot of smoke and mirrors if there is no one to enforce the limits anyway.
How about painting some frikin lines on the roads…it may not cause any fatalities but damn sure causes a few fender benders etc. I feel sorry for anyone from out of town driving here..
I agree, city practically had a month of painting weather with very little snow.
How about we stop handing out driver’s licenses like they’re candy on Halloween? Make it much more difficult to get and to keep a license. Instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator why not raise the bar and keep the idiots off the streets and on the buses?
Axman, you’re right on! And while they’re at it, perhaps being able to read the driver’s test and road signs in English would help.
“Implement a vehicle safety testing program in BC that requires regular basic vehicle safety checks (e.g., of tires, brakes, steering) as a condition of vehicle insurance and offers incentives to British Columbians to acquire safety technologies.” .. looks like another cash grab, because I don’t see any data that says unsafe vehicles or vehicle malfunctions are the cause of a majority of the crashes. Not a mention of making penalties stiffer for things like texting or talking on the phone while driving although it is now right up there with alcohol as the cause of most accidents, and the only reason for that is there is it is too hard to enforce whereas making people shell out bucks when getting insurance is basically being able to hold your license hostage unless you pay.
Several US states require an annual safety check before your insurance can be renewed it has met with varying degrees of success and failure depending on the state laws. Utah, Colorado, California and several Southern and New England states all require an annual safety check before insurance renewal.
Some states it works well in others there is a high degree of uninsured vehicles on the road Utah for instance roughly 50% of the vehicles on the road there are either uninsured or under insured because they did not or could not pass the safety inspection. Scary thought
Lower speed limits do not prevent speeding, they have the opposite effect in the city. Foothills at 50km/hr is a joke, and should be back to 70km/hr. The flow of traffic is what keeps people safe, people will not do 30. Some of us have jobs, and places to go, unlike the government employee and welfare, F350 driving local talent.
Drinking age back up to 21, worked in the states in reducing drinking involved crashes.
Drinking, driving tickets should not be up to the policeman’s discretion especially for those with a Class 7.
I picked up a passenger (Class 7 who had been drinking and driving) and who didn’t get a ticket or any recompense for it except for having to pay for a taxi.
This, I do not feel is right.
The flow of traffic is what? “Your New Speed Limit” not at all “The Posted Speed is the Limit”. What ever you think it should be, explain this when you get stopped and get your Ticket .
I agree the posted speed is the limit, however,flow of traffic in larger communities than Vanderhoof, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, is 10 k over, that is the norm, and that is how to drive safe, so long as you are able.
The stats are totally meaningless with additional information as to when the individuals dying as a result of crashes actually die.
The stats which we need to see are the rate of deaths immediately at the scene, versus between the time the crash occurred and the time of discovery of the crash by others as well as the time from discovery to arrival of first responders and the time it takes to get the injured, but alive individual to a qualified trauma centre.
It is reasonably well known by those who work in this area of research that motor vehicle crash fatality rates have been consistently higher in rural areas than in urban areas no matter in which province and which country.
The fatal crash incidence density is typically more than two times higher in rural than in urban areas in the USA and Canada. This is driven primarily by the injury fatality rate, which is almost three times higher in rural areas.
It is a disingenuous for the Provincial Health Officer to look at only one side of the issue while ignoring the fact that the trauma response system in BC varies considerably in its effectiveness from the GVRD and the remote ar3es of the rest of the province.
That should read …. “The stats are totally meaningless WITHOUT additional information as to when the individuals dying as a result of crashes actually die.”
There is another factor which comes into play, the age of the person involved in the crash that is injured.
The likelihood of an individual who is older than 65 dying as a result of the injury increases dramatically the older one is. The incidence increases from about 5% at 55 to 64 to 25% at age 85+. At 75 to 84 it is about 10%.
BC, for instance, has an older population demographic than Ontario. Ontario has a higher urban density than BC and has a much better system of ambulance response (air + ground) than BC as well as a larger number of level 1 and 2 trauma care centres which can deal with a greater variety of trauma injuries.
It is not only the state of highways, the quality of drivers, but also the emergency response systems which influence how many die as a result of crashes.
injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/11/1/24/F2.large.jpg
carrsq.qut.edu.au/publications/corporate/rural_and_remote_fs.pdf
A much more comprehensive overview of the factors which cause a proportionally greater number of fatalities from crashes in rural areas than urban areas is presented in the above linked fact sheet from Australia.
The current BC study, as presented by the recommendations, does not even touch the comprehensive look provided by the Australian study.
From “Rural States Struggle to Reduce Road Deaths”
“Rural roads are generally more dangerous than urban roads for a number of reasons, and states with more country routes tend to have higher fatality rates. Only 19 percent of Americans live in rural areas, but 55 percent of all road fatalities happened in the country.”
1. people drive faster in rural areas, and the crashes are more deadly. Head-on collisions, for example, are more common in country areas, because opposite-direction traffic is rarely separated on two-lane roads. Other safety features, like guard rails, are also less common.
2. there are fewer people to call for help after an accident
3. help is likely to be farther away
4. hospitals are also often farther away
5. hospitals may not have the capacity to handle severe traumas.
6. drivers in rural areas also tend to be older and therefore more vulnerable to injury
7. rural drivers are more likely to have been drinking
8. fewer police officers spread out across rural areas are less likely to catch drivers for driving drunk, speeding or not wearing a seat belt.
pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2013/03/12/rural-states-struggle-to-reduce-road-deaths
There are many studies viewable on the internet which are superior to the current limited info from the BC Medical Health Officer. I consider the report’s extreme bias to absolve the very service which needs to step up its capacity in the hinterlands of BC of responsibility of for that greater fatality rate in remote areas.
It is as if car manufacturers would stop trying to make safer cars.
How does prohibiting bull bars in urban areas help? Wont we then have to buy new bumpers for all the RCMP suburbans and trucks?
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