TP 13743 E
February 2001

This report presents descriptive statistics about Canadian traffic collisions during the ten-year period from 1988 to 1997, focusing specifically on casualty collisions. Casualty collisions are defined as all reportable motor vehicle crashes resulting in fatalities or injuries.

Transport Canada, in cooperation with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, acquires vehicle collision data from provincial and territorial agencies and stores this information in its own Traffic Accident Information Database (TRAID). All the traffic collision statistics presented here were derived from this database. The various jurisdictions collect largely similar crash data, but because each jurisdiction has its own collision report forms and reporting procedures and maintains its own data, there cannot be complete data uniformity.

The first section of the report reviews the environmental elements of collisions, including day, time, weather, road attributes, and crash configurations. The second section examines factors related to the vehicles involved in collisions such as vehicle type, vehicle manoeuvre, and vehicle events. Finally, the third section looks at the age, sex, road user category, and other characteristics of the persons involved in vehicle crashes.

All tables in this report present data for the ten-year period from 1988 to 1997, and all tables, except Table 1.1, refer to fatality and injury collisions exclusively. A brief discussion of selected ten-year trends or averages is included at the beginning of each section.

Manitoba collision statistics from 1989 are excluded from this report because technical difficulties within the jurisdiction have made the data unavailable. Where necessary, other significant data exclusions are noted below the relevant table.

You may download the full report, Trends in Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics, 1988-1997, in Portable Document Format (PDF) (727 Kb). To view PDF documents you must use Adobe® Acrobat Reader. Visit the Adobe site to download the latest, free version.

If you need an alternative format or for more information, please contact us by e-mail at RoadSafetyWebMail@tc.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-333-0371 (Ottawa area (613) 998-8616).