Road safety: a shared responsibility
In Canada, responsibility for road safety is shared among the federal,
provincial/territorial and municipal levels of government. The federal
government is responsible for the regulation of the manufacture and importation
of prescribed motor vehicle and equipment, as well as the safety fitness of
inter-provincial motor carriers (the Motor
Vehicle Transport Act).
Provinces, territories and municipalities are responsible for highway
development and maintenance, commercial vehicle operations, driver and vehicle
licensing and the development and implementation of local safety initiatives.
The Canadian Council of Motor Transport
Administrators along with key non-governmental agencies, such as the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian
Automobile Association, also play an important role in the development and
delivery of safety programs.
![Canada 2000: Population 30.8 M - Collisions 622 K - Vehicles 17.9 M - Fatalities 2,926](/web/20060212042814im_/http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13951/2001/images/graph01.gif)
There is no official abbreviation for Nunavut at this time.
The abbreviation used here is provisional.
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Canadians are among the most mobile people on earth
Motor vehicles help Canadians overcome two fundamental features of the
country: vast geography and harsh climate. Our country has more than 1,420,000
kilometres (two-lane equivalent kilometres) of roadway, and the roads are busier
than ever.
Canada had almost 21 million licensed drivers in 2001 - 10 million more than
in 1975, a 76 percent increase compared to an increase in the population of 34
percent. In 2001, Canadians registered 18.1 million road motor vehicles - 7
million more vehicles than in 1975, a 61 percent increase.
![FFatalities have decreased by 54% while the number of motor vehicles registered has increased more than 60%](/web/20060212042814im_/http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13951/2001/images/graph02.gif)
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Travel is safer than it has been in 25 years
Despite steady increases in the number of drivers and vehicles, travel on
Canadian roads is safer today than ever before.
Traffic fatalities in 2001 were less than half of the 6,061 deaths in 1975
and were at the lowest level since 1954. For the last few years, the number of
persons injured hovered above the 220,000 mark, and registered at 221,158 in
2001. Throughout the 1990s, Canada’s safety record continued to improve.
![FFatalities per 10,000 Motor Vehicles Registered (MVR) 2000, 2001](/web/20060212042814im_/http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13951/2001/images/graph03.gif)
In the chart above, the territory of Nunavut (with a fatality
rate in 2001 of 6.5) was omitted in order to avoid obscuring the fatality rates
for the other jurisdictions. In terms of fatalities per 10,000 motor vehicles
registered, the downward trend continued. The fatality rates remained unchanged
or were lower in 2001 compared to 2000 in nine of the twelve jurisdictions
shown. Vehicle kilometres travelled were available for the first time for 2000
from the Canadian Vehicle Survey (Statistics Canada) for each province and
territory.
![Fatalities per Billion Vehicle-Kilometres Travelled 2000 and 2001](/web/20060212042814im_/http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13951/2001/images/graph04.gif)
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Despite huge improvements in road safety, nearly 3000 Canadians die on the roads every year
Improvements notwithstanding, casualty figures are a grim
reminder of the high price Canadians pay for their mobility. Traffic fatalities
accounted for 93 percent of transportation fatalities nationwide in 2001.
Traffic collisions in Canada claimed the lives of 2,781 road users and injured
another 221,158 in 2001.
![Comparison of Fatalities by Mode of Transportation, 2001](/web/20060212042814im_/http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13951/2001/images/graph05.gif)
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