Trends in alcohol-impaired driving in Canada Trends in alcohol-impaired driving in Canada

Abstract Background Drinking and driving continues to be a major road safety problem in Canada with 744 persons killed in crashes involving a drinking driver and 37% of fatally injured drivers testing positive for alcohol in 2010, the most recent data year available. Aims This paper describes recent trends in drinking and driving in Canada to better understand the current situation, and to determine whether the magnitude of the problem has been increasing or decreasing. Methods Multiple indicators are used to examine trends in drinking driving behaviour and alcoholrelated fatalities. Data sources include: A National Fatality Database, a comprehensive source of national data compiled annually by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) from coroner/medical examiner files and police reports on fatal crashes; and the Road Safety Monitor (RSM), an annual National Public Opinion Poll on Drinking and Driving conducted by TIRF. Results From 1995 to 2010 in Canada, there has been a continued and fairly consistent decrease in the number of fatalities involving a drinking driver in absolute terms as well as when these numbers are standardized into per capita and per licensed driver rates. The number and percent of fatally injured drivers testing positive for alcohol have also declined over this study period. Survey data from the RSM further show that the percentage of those who reported driving after they thought they were over the legal limit has also decreased consistently and significantly since 2008. Discussion and conclusions Despite the apparent decreasing trend in drinking driving fatalities and behaviour since 1995, reductions have been relatively modest in recent years, and fatalities in crashes involving drivers who have consumed alcohol remain at high unacceptable levels

Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon

Although driver education (DE) is widely accepted as an effective teen driver safety measure and widely available in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, evaluations have generally failed to show that such formal programs actually produce safer drivers. To address the issue of safety effects as part of a larger investigation, two studies were conducted to examine whether the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)-approved DE program was associated with reductions in collisions and convictions. In the first study, DE status among a relatively small sample of teens who completed an online survey was not found to have a significant effect on collisions and convictions. In the second study, of a much larger population of teen drivers, DE status was associated with a lower incidence of collisions and convictions. On balance, this suggests that the safety effects of DE are either neutral, based on the results of the first Oregon study, or cautiously optimistic based on the results of the second study. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of making improvements in DE that are evidence-based, and the need for further evaluation to establish that improved and new programs meet their safety objectives