Executive Summary
Canada's inaugural national road safety vision -- "to have the
safest roads in the world," and plan, Road Safety Vision 2001, were
adopted by the Council of Ministers of Transportation and Highway Safety
in 1996.
Initiatives undertaken in support of the vision (1996-2001) have helped
progress the plan's strategic objectives: heighten awareness of road safety
issues among the general public, foster cooperation and collaboration among
road safety agencies, provide more focused enforcement and improve data
quality and collection practices.
Canada's level of road safety during 1998, as measured by
road users killed per registered motor vehicle, improved by almost 9% since
the Vision was adopted in 1996. During the same three-year period, the
actual number of road users killed and seriously injured decreased by 5%
and 8%, respectively, over comparable 1996 figures.
Although Canada's fatality rate per 10,000 motor vehicles registered
decreased from 1.79 in 1996 to 1.63 during 1998, its international ranking
among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member
countries decreased to 9th from 8th during 1996 and 1997 because some other
countries achieved even more impressive gains during the same period.
In October 2000, the Council of Ministers for Transportation and Highway
Safety approved a longer term successor plan, called Road Safety Vision 2010,
to carry forward the work of Canada's inaugural national road safety plan.
Road Safety Vision 2010 will retain the Vision and its strategic objectives,
and also include an overall national target and sub-targets (to be
monitored annually and revised in 2006, if necessary).
The targets approved as part of Road Safety Vision 2010 are intended to
provide road safety stakeholders with broad-based benchmark data of key road
safety indicators, against which intervention efforts can be measured.
The national target calls for a 30% decrease in the average number of road
users killed and seriously injured during the 2008-2010 period over comparable
1996-2001 figures.
The sub-targets include:
- minimum seat belt rates of 95% and proper use of child restraints
by all motor vehicle occupants; (National Occupant Restraint Program 2010);
- a 40% decrease in the number of unbelted fatally or seriously injured
occupants (National Occupant Restraint Program 2010);
- a 40% decrease in the percent of road users fatally or seriously
injured in crashes involving a drinking driver (Strategy to Reduce
Impaired Driving (2010);
- a 20% reduction in the number of road users killed or seriously injured
in speed and intersection related crashes;
- a 20% decrease in the percent of drivers who commit three high-risk
driving infractions (two if they are alcohol-related) within a two-year time frame;
- a 20% decrease in the number of young drivers/riders (those aged
16-19 years) killed or seriously injured in crashes;
- a 20% decrease in the number of road users killed or seriously
injured in crashes involving commercial carriers;
- a 30% decrease in the number of vulnerable road users (pedestrians,
motorcyclists and cyclists) killed or seriously injured, and;
- a 40% decrease in the number of road users fatally or seriously
injured on rural roadways.
In addition to the adoption of quantitative targets, the successor plan also
recommends the adoption of graduated licensing schemes in all jurisdictions; the
use of innovative community policing protocols; public education campaigns to
promote safe cycling; and enhancements to crash and exposure data capture, transfer
and linkage.
Achievement of these targets would reduce Canada's road fatality total to fewer than
2,100 by 2010.
You may download the full report Canada's
Road Safety Targets to 2010, TP 13736 E, in Portable Document Format (PDF)
(371Kb).
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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).
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