Road Safety in Canada

Français

Help

Canada Site

Home	About us	Media room	Environment	Emergencies
Air	Marine	Rail	Road	Major issues

Road Safety in Canada 2001
TP #13951

•	Index
•	Road Safety: a shared responsibility
•	A profile of collisions in Canada
•	People at risk
•	Alcohol: unsafe at any speed
•	9 out of 10 Canadians buckle up!
•	Drivers and passengers at risk
•	Vulnerable road users


•	Road Safety's Main Menu

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
There is no official abbreviation for Nunavut at this time. The abbreviation used here is provisional.

Top

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%

Top

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

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

Top

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