Road Safety Programs

I was listening to the investigation of a driving complaint unfold the other day. A member of the public had complained about the way a business vehicle was being driven and the constable had asked the dispatcher to inquire about the driver with the business. "He's a pretty bad driver" the dispatcher relayed from the business owner, "he should probably get a ticket."

Worldwide, about 1.3 million people die each year because of road crashes. B.C.'s average of about 350 seems small by comparison and we probably think that we are one of the better examples of traffic safety. Well, think again.

The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) has announced the successor program to Canada's Road Safety Strategy 2015 encourages us all to Rethink Road Safety and make Canada's roads the safest in the world.

This web site supports a campaign for 20 mph speed limits in residential areas of Britain. The idea behind the movement is to bring pedestrians and cyclists back onto the streets, reduce injury if a collision occurs and showing that the reduction in speed costs motorists very little time.

BC's Responsible Driver Program is required for drivers who have received an Immediate Roadside Prohibition for blowing a fail, having been convicted of an alcohol related driving offence or who have multiple alcohol related driving events on their driving record. The program may also be required because the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles has evidence that the driver has an alcohol abuse or misuse problem.

Australia is known for its hard hitting advertising campaigns aimed at reducing death and injury due to motor vehicle collisions. This video is a retrospective on 20 years of road safety campaigns. It features iconic scenes and images from commercials that have helped change they way we drive, all edited to the moving song Everybody Hurts by REM.

Some of the best anti-impaired driving videos come out of Australia. This example runs for 5 minutes and 22 seconds and it explains very well why police target impaired drivers. As they say, if you drink and drive, you're a bloody idiot!

The European Transport Safety Council has released the first of it's thematic reports in the PRAISE series asking the question "How can in-vehicle safety equipment improve road safety at work?"

Perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of driving is taking responsibility for your actions when you drive your vehicle or your employer's vehicle. We tend to sit anonymously in the confines of the passenger compartment and not feel obligated to exercise our social manners toward the other unfamiliar drivers around us.

Are you concerned with heavy truck safety on BC highways? The Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement branch of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has produced a report described by the following excerpt: