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Car Accident Lawyer – Injury Compensation Claims


Lawyer Helpline 855-804-7142

Car Accidents in Canada

Car accidents in Canada are frequent, in part because of the prolonged winter that leaves ice and snow on the roads for a greater proportion of the year. This makes weather-related accidents a high priority among drivers in Canada.

Collisions in Canada are kept track of by Transport Canada’s National Collision Database or NCDB. It contains detailed information on all reported traffic accidents in Canada and tabulates the data each year. The number of cars is increasing on Canada’s roadways but the number of fatalities and serious injuries are decreasing; it is believed to be due to increased safety standards in motor vehicles and stringent enforcement of seat belt laws.

In recent years, the number of car accident injuries and fatalities is the lowest since records have been kept. For example, in 1991, the number of traffic fatalities was 3,228 and in 2010, the number of fatalities was only 2,000. Work is being done by the provincial and federal governments to continue to improve road safety in Canada.

Fatal collisions are defined as all motor vehicle accidents that resulted in a fatality at the time of the collision or up to 30 days after the collision. This is true except in Quebec, where accidents qualify as having fatalities if the accident caused a fatality up to 8 days after the accident. Personal injury accidents are those that involved injuries but did not result in a fatality. The injury must be directly related to the accident within 30 days of the incident (but only 8 days in Quebec). Serious injures include those in which the patient was admitted to the hospital. Total injuries represent all types of reported injuries in a motor vehicle accident, regardless of severity.

According to statistics collected by the NCBD, the number of fatalities per 100,000 members of the population was 6.5 in 2010. This was a decrease from the 6.6 per 100,000 in 2009. Fatalities were highest in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. Many injuries and fatalities are clustered in the young driver population and include their passengers. Twenty three percent of motor vehicle fatalities occurred in the 15-24 year old population in 2010. This is in the face of the fact that this age group represents only 13 percent of the population in Canada.

Only about 57 percent of fatalities occurred on rural roads in 2010. On the other hand, 73 percent of all car collisions reported to authorities occurred in urban areas. In spite of the increased number of car accidents in urban areas, the fatality rate was much decreased.

How does Canada rate in numbers of car accidents per 100,000 people? In 2010, for example, the rate of fatalities for car accidents in Canada was 6.5 per 100,000 people. In the same year it was reported that the same rate per 100,000 people in the US was 10.7. This means that in spite of the poorer weather conditions during a great stretch of the year in Canada, there were fewer fatalities and presumably better driving skills. Canada is mostly a rural country so that the decreased number of people per square kilometer may also account for the reduction in fatalities in Canada as compared to the US.

What accounts for the presence of improved accident statistics in the last few years? Transport Canada has a Motor Vehicle Safety Directorate that works closely with the government of Canada and with industry specialists to make Canadian roads the safest possible. Some of the changes in road safety have been governed by the Motor Vehicle Transport Act and the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Act. These acts apply and enforce safety standards involving three particular areas of vehicle safety:

  • Child safety seats. Safer seats have been made safer over time so that children are best protected against injury associated with motor vehicle accidents.

  • Vehicle safety. Cars are made and imported under stricter standards with updated devices that protect passengers and drivers from severe injury during a motor vehicle crash. Unfortunately, it only applies to new cars so the advanced safety standards won’t be completely beneficial for many years.

  • Motor carriers and commercial vehicles. There have been increased safety requirements for all drivers of motor carriers and commercial vehicles. Regulations are in place to regulate the number of hours a commercial vehicle driver can drive so that there is a lesser chance of driver fatigue and sleeping at the wheel.

There have also been a number of advances in the technology of cars. A few of the technologies help in the avoidance of and severity of motor vehicle crashes. Other technologies help passenger and drivers stay safe if a car crash actually happens.

Unfortunately, the technologies in vehicles are usually only on certain models of cars. As time goes by, more vehicles will have the new technologies. Currently, the technologies to make cars safer can be standard or options when you buy the vehicle. Manufacturers differ in the technologies offered and in the names of the various technologies.

One particular technology avoids car accidents by providing a crash warning system that alerts drivers in the event of an impending crash so the driver can have time to get out of the way. Drivers are encouraged to check manuals or check with the manufacturer to find out which safety features are offered on vehicles they are interested in buying. When more people trust and use the new safety features, there will be fewer serious injuries or fatalities in Canada.

Serious injuries and fatalities have dropped dramatically over the past 40 years, in part due to increased safety on the roadways. Drivers in Canada benefit from a lesser population density than in the US, where fatalities and serious injuries are greater and the population is denser. More accidents happen in densely populated places but more fatalities happen in those areas that have a less dense population.

There have been better regulations regarding commercial driving in the past years which have cut down on the incidence of accidents caused by commercial vehicles and new technologies have made cars safer to drive on the road.

Lawyer Helpline 855-804-7142

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