For my feature, data and statistics were essential. The numbers obviously don’t tell the whole story, but it was essential for me to show how although there are more and more drivers in Canada, yet the roads are becoming safer and safer.

Upon doing some research I found that it wasn’t just one form of traffic crime that is on the decline either. Impaired driving, driving while prohibited, and leaving the scene of an accident have all been cut in half over the last 15 years.

It was hard to believe how many numbers there are readily available for the entire country by province, as well as municipally. It is convenient that the numbers are there for nearly every year, as well as groupings of years when applicable.

I relied on a variety of resources for my statistics and data. Stats Canada, The Government of Canada and Mothers Against Drunk Driving all performed recent valuable studies that I used.

http://www.madd.ca/madd2/en/impaired_driving/impaired_driving_youth.html

http://publications.gc.ca/Collection/Statcan/53F0007X/53F0007XIE.pdf

http://www.vitalsignscanada.ca/en/findings-41-safety-traffic-crime-rate-2013-findings

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/legal50d-eng.htm

http://www.ottawapolice.ca/Libraries/Publications/2012_Crime_Police_and_Traffic_Statistics_Report_final.sflb.ashx

The number of drivers in Canada has been steadily increasing over time. As the number of drivers has increased, traffic crime in Canada has decreased at a steady rate. A report by Vital Signs Canada has shown that between 1991 and 2007 incidents of traffic crime in Canada were halved, going from over 800 incidents per 100,000 residents to the current national average of just over 400.
With the number of drivers increasing rapidly as Canada continues to grow, the question is now just how safe can the country’s roads get?
“It’s becoming more risky to be a bad driver and technology has had a big impact on it,” says Brian Vetter.
Vetter, a graduate of both Police Foundations and Criminology currently working with community policing, points to what he calls a “new era” of policing and better educating of traffic laws as a main cause of this.
“There are different ideas now to enforce traffic laws other than having police officers on the road trying to catch people,” explains Vetter.
“Roads have been getting much safer, even just having a police car without an officer present, when drivers see a car they follow the rules more, believing the possibility of caught is much more realistic.”
Modern technology has allowed law enforcement to monitor roads and enforce laws in a variety of ways such as red light and stop sign cameras. The prevalence of security cameras and camera phones has also lead to a decline in hit and runs, with getting caught a realistic possibility now.
“We had a class on red light cameras that showed a dramatic decrease in traffic crime directly related to them,” says Vetter. “The camera itself is noticeable; people know to look for it now, feeling like they could be being watched.”
While these devices have had a positive effect on reducing traffic crime, they have not been without controversy. Critics accuse some of the technology as an invasion of privacy, and try to argue the reliability of a machine rather than a human.
“A lot of people disagree with it, they call it an invasion or violation of their privacy,” says Vetter of the complaints. “A lot of townships don’t have it yet, but over the last few years it’s really taking off in Canada.”
Bigger cities with better-funded law enforcement have lead the way in policing the roads using technology, with smaller townships expected to follow suit. If the rates continue to fall, it may only be a matter of time until more technology comes into play.
“It’s still relatively new here, they’re still just starting to come out with a lot of the technologies with plenty yet to be used,” says Vetter. “It was really big in Europe first, specifically England. Now they’re finally slowly bringing it here, piggybacking on their success.”
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was founded in 1980 to tackle impaired driving. As an organization, they are responsible for reducing impaired driving numbers in a variety of ways. Supporters of mandatory and random roadblocks, MADD has promoted them in areas of need. As well, MADD has been one of the bigger proponents of breath alcohol ignition interlock devices. The device is a breathalyzer that is installed on a vehicle’s dashboard so that the driver must use before being able to operate the vehicle.
They are one of many sentencing options for impaired driving, becoming more and more common in Ontario.
MADD studies have shown how closely linked impaired driving and youth are, with one-third of alcohol related crash victims being under the age of 25 and 19 the most common age of victims. It is for that reason that MADD and schools are really using their resources to educate, to make sure that by the time students are in a position to be able to both drink and drive, they know better than to get behind the wheel.
The really notable thing though, according to MADD, young people are actually statistically the least likely to drive impaired. It just happens that the ones who do happen to be the most dangerous. Driving inexperience is the biggest issue, which when combined with alcohol or drug impairment has deadly consequences.
As valuable as technology is to keeping the roads safe, police presence will always be the first deterrent. RIDE (reduce impaired driving everywhere) checks, first established in 1977 in Etobicoke, have successfully reduced impaired driving. A MADD Canada study shows that 156 RIDE stops, an average number for most cities, reduces alcohol related accidents by at least 15%. Alcohol related accidents account for many traffic crimes, with multiple laws often being broken in a single crash.
The MADD impaired driving numbers show how for young impaired drivers, single-vehicle accidents are the most common as a result of losing control. They also show that once a young person has reached a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent, he or she is 51 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.
With the popularity of social media, a single RIDE check can deter people miles away with information travelling at an ever-growing rate.
“With more frequent RIDE checks and everyone constantly checking their Twitter and Facebook, word spreads fast on social media about them, and the consequences of drinking and driving in general,” offers Taylor Lanthier.
Lanthier is a Police Foundations graduate who is currently working in security.
Learning about how the police are starting to use social media to educate and reach out to the public is now a part of the curriculum.
“In the past, they never had the outreach they do today online, not only to encourage safe driving but to explain the risks and consequences of unsafe driving,” says Lanthier.
The banning of cell phones while driving has been controversial. While cell phones are distracting, separate 2013 studies done by the American Automobile Association and Toronto Sunnybrook Hospital have both found that hands-free calling and texting devices are just as dangerous as cell phones, and even impaired driving. The Toronto study used MRIs to show how when using a hands-free device and making a left turn, the brain is forced to work at a capacity that makes driving safely difficult. Transport Canada has 40 percent of traffic fatalities occurring at intersections, with left turns accounting for them more than three times more often than right turns.
“With hand held technology there is still way too much distracted driving,” says Lanthier.
“When they are now known to cause more accidents than drinking and driving at times, it really shows how it can have it’s negative effects as well.”
Ottawa’s traffic crime rate (incidents per 100,000 residents) has been less than the average in Canada in each of the last 15 years, including in 2007 when they hit a high.
Ottawa Police stop between 15,000 and 30,000 vehicles in ride checks, and impaired driving has been on a steady decline. With less than 300 traffic crime violations per 100,000 residents, Ottawa has some of the safest roads in the country, thanks in part to a large police presence, at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.
Sgt. Al Ferris has been working in traffic enforcement since the early 1980’s, which has given him perspective on the changing road safety.
“Public education has been the biggest thing, community awareness at the municipal, provincial and federal levels,” says Ferris. “It starts at the city level, moving up from there to the country.”
Ferris points to a report of a popular investigative journalism team as one of the key figures in getting the ball rolling on reducing impaired driving.
“The Fifth Estate really got the ball rolling on impaired driving awareness in 1988, with a report on the dangers,” explains Ferris. “The MADD program was still relatively new, but the combination of these programs really raised awareness to where we are today with social media.”
Quebec has seen less of a drop in traffic crime than neighboring provinces, regularly finishing in the top two in the country. Laxer road laws, play a part, as well as a number of other factors. The lower drinking age can help explain the impaired driving numbers.
Quebec averages twice as many incidents of impaired driving as Ontario, with 230 incidents per 100,00 in the province compared to just 120 for Ontario. Quebec has begun to follow Ontario’s lead as well in implementing many RIDE stops, or sobriety stops, during the holiday season, when impaired driving is most common.
Canadians are noticing the roads becoming much safer. Brittany Rose is a St John Ambulance worker, which provides first aid medical services and ambulance services to those in need. They travel a lot, which means a lot of highway driving.
“Working with St John for close to ten years, weather has a pretty big impact on it, but careless driving is the big one,” says Rose. “In my first couple years here, a lot of our calls were for accidents on Highway 17, but in the last few years it’s been a noticeable drop.”
The majority of alcohol-related crashes are single vehicle according to Rose. A Government of Canada report shows an annual population growth of 1 per cent from 1991 to 2000. With the number of drivers increasing annually, it would seem surprising that the majority of alcohol-related crashes are single vehicle. During the same time period, the 16-24 age group or inexperienced drivers witnessed a 1.3 per cent average annual growth.
“Youth are realizing more and more the consequences, not just to them and their family but anyone they could come in contact with,” says Rose. “I think that really shows in the safety of the roads, but there is always work to be done.”