My perspective - What about the others?
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- Published on Friday, November 23, 2018
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner & Press
This fall, 水果视频 Public Insurance launched a new awareness campaign. Called 鈥淪ave the 100鈥�, the campaign aims to put a face and a story to the approximately 100 水果视频ns who die annually as a result of traffic accidents. The initiative is part of the 2017-20 鈥淩oad to Zero鈥�, a partnership between MPI and the Province of 水果视频, which aims to make 水果视频鈥檚 roads the safest in Canada.
This is set against the backdrop of collision statistics. According to MPI鈥檚 2017 Traffic Collision Statistics Report, 65 of the 51,844 collisions reported in 水果视频 resulted in a fatality and 73 people died as a result of traffic accidents. The five-year trend is seeing a rise in the number of accidents, but a decrease in the number of fatalities. While 86 per cent of accidents that resulted in injury or death occurred in urban areas, rural crashes accounted for a disproportionate number of serious injuries鈥� 69 per cent of people killed and 43 per cent of people seriously injured.
Last year, distracted driving was considered a contributing factor in 40 per cent of accidents that resulted in death or serious injury. This was followed by impaired driving (32 per cent), losing control or driving off the road (close to 19 per cent) and failing to yield right of way (15 per cent).
Distracted driving may have been a factor in almost half of all fatal collisions, but it鈥檚 a catch all term, including both incidents of careless driving and cases where drivers were distracted or inattentive. So while it includes people texting and driving, it also includes drivers doing things that are distracting, but not illegal, like talking to passengers or trying to decipher road signs. Breaking down the accidents where fatalities were recorded, of the 26 attributed to 鈥渄istracted driving鈥� in 2017, 18 were related to careless driving and nine were related to distracted or inattentive drivers. For comparison鈥檚 sake, that same year, 21 fatalities were related to impairment, 12 were attributed to loss of control, 12 were attributed to speeding and 10 were related to a failure to yield right of way.
Traffic fatalities have an unequivocal cost. MPI and the provincial government peg the social cost, which includes loss of life, medical treatment, rehabilitation, lost productivity and property damage, at $6.4 million per fatality. That鈥檚 before the immeasurable impact a loss of life has on the victim鈥檚 family and friends.
With that in mind, I would like to see MPI actually push for other improvements in road safety, beyond just cracking down on people using hand-held electronic devices at stop lights. I don鈥檛 see a huge push to cut down on speeding and I certainly don鈥檛 see MPI lobbying the provincial government to actually maintain and repair roads, especially in rural areas. I live near a secondary provincial highway and this year, like every year, it will spend the winter covered in ice鈥� it鈥檚 never cleared quickly enough after the first snowfall. I don鈥檛 see MPI partnering with CAA to push for repairs to the province鈥檚 worst roads. I don鈥檛 see an abundance of crash barriers and I don鈥檛 see initiatives aimed at improving lighting or road markings, since MPI鈥檚 statistics show that most accidents happen in the darkest months. I don鈥檛 see much being done to address the physical road conditions that are likely to cause drivers to lose control or be uncertain about a right of way, both of which resulted in more fatal accidents than distracted driving.
This isn鈥檛 to make light of the tragedy experienced by the family and friends of those lost to distracted driving, but focusing singlehandedly on it does a disservice to all the families who have lost loved ones due to causes that aren鈥檛 nearly so fashionable, or profitable, to enforce.
