Intersection Safety and Road Safety Vision 2010

According to a Transport Canada presentation to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (April 2007) entitled: Intersection Crashes in Canada: Driver Characteristics and Casualty Trends, “More that two out of five drivers in a fatal or serious injury-intersection-crash had committed an infraction that contributed to the crash.”  It goes on to say that: “The most common driving infractions reported in fatal intersection crashes were disobeying traffic controls and failing to yield the right of way.”

Transport Canada stated that most of the collisions at intersections are preventable.  Factors, other than disobeying traffic controls that contributed to “crashes caused by driver-action” would include speeding, failing to yield, lost of control, improper turning and following too close.  They also concluded that younger drivers (16-24 years) and senior drivers (65 years and older) are at greater risk of serious collision involvement at intersections.   Finally, the key results showed that there was an increase in driver inattention/distraction and that alcohol use (implicated in the deaths of one in five killed in an intersection crash) and driving too fast were frequently cited as contributing factors for intersection crashes.

We can reduce fatalities and injuries from intersection crashes through careful use of good road design, traffic engineering, comprehensive traffic safety laws and regulations, consistent enforcement efforts and sustained education of drivers and pedestrians.  Canada Safety Council continues to promote awareness and offers defensive driving courses which contribute in lowering the statistics of injury and death. The Defensive Driving Course presents a three-part collision prevention formula: recognize the hazard, understand the defense and act in time.

A refresher course would advise drivers to take three precautions when approaching and crossing an intersection. 

• Scan the intersection and beyond, as you approach with caution.
• Always be 100 percent prepared to yield.  Keep your foot off the accelerator and covering the brake pad.
• Before proceeding, check for cross-traffic.  Look left, right, left again and continue to scan as you proceed.

Road Safety Vision 2010 is Canada ’s national road safety plan.  It is the successor to the first national road safety initiative, Road Safety Vision 2001, which was officially launched in 1996.  The goal of Road Safety Vision 2010 is to make Canada ’s roads the safest in the world.  Its strategic objectives are to raise public awareness of road safety issues, improve communication, cooperation and collaboration among road safety agencies, enhance enforcement measures and improve national road safety data quality and collection.

The 2005 Annual Report on Road Safety Vision 2010 reveals that Canadians are among the most mobile people in the world with 74 out of every 100 citizens (16 years of age or older) owning a motor vehicle.  It is estimated that each of Canada ’s 31.6 million people traveled an average of 16,000 kilometers on Canada ’s roadways during 2004.  Unfortunately, 2,923 road users were killed and over 210,629 were injured in 2005.  Vehicle occupants accounted for over three-quarters (77 percent) of the deaths. The rest were pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists.   

Intersections are considered to be particularly dangerous road locations.  The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrator’s task force: Speed and Intersection Safety Management (SISM) set out to determine the magnitude of collisions related to speed and intersections as well as to identify strategies currently in place to address these issues. SISM has recognized that speed and intersection safety are not mutually exclusive and it is impossible to address the strategies separately. 

The task force of SISM has identified four core strategies that focus on education/awareness, research, road infrastructure/standards and enforcement.  The education and awareness strategy seeks to increase the knowledge and understanding of road users surrounding the risks and consequences of unsafe driving as well as increase the public awareness of risk of apprehension.  Research seeks to more fully understand driver motivation for unsafe driving practices and develop the best practices for program development, including public education and police enforcement. The strategy of road infrastructure and standards supports the development of national standards establishing speed limits by roadway type and a consistent national data collection process.  Enforcement determines an optimization of enforcement resources.

The national goal of Road Safety Vision 2010 is to achieve a 20 percent reduction in intersection-related fatalities and injuries as well as a 20 percent reduction in speed-related fatalities and injuries. Making Canada ’s Roads the Safest in the World….it is a matter that concerns us all.

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