Road Safety
Prevention
Innovation Leader
Vision
The British Columbia Road Fatality is above the Canadian average and over twice that of jurisdictions with the safest roads. The vision of the Road Safety research initiative is to conduct relevant road safety research and policy evaluation and to work closely with policy makers to foster evidence-based road safety best practices with the long term goal of making British Columbia’s roads the safest in the world.
Current Activities
- Completed Quick Guide to Reporting Unfit Drivers in BC for BC emergency practitioners, vetted by Doctors of BC and by RoadSafetyBC
- Completed analysis of the “Physician reporting of unfit drivers” study; download the report “Reporting Unfit Drivers: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of BC Physicians“
- Completed “Active Transportation” chart review
- Literature review on active transportation (cycling and pedestrian) injuries
- Completed enrollment for the “Cannabis and Crash Culpability” study, presented preliminary results at the BC Road Safety Conference (Dec 2016); final results pending completion of blood analysis
- Beginning work on a study of the association between syncope and car crashes
Short-Term Goals
- Determine the proportion of injured drivers who use psychotropic drugs before a crash
- To determine whether drivers who used cannabis or other psychotropic drugs are more likely to have caused the crash.
- Work effectively with policy makers to ensure that they are aware of the most recent evidence around the problem of drug and alcohol impaired driving in BC
- Determine the prevalence and associated crash risk of other driver-related risk factors (such as distraction, fatigue, medical problems) and to disseminate these findings to policy makers
- To better understand the outcome following road trauma in all road users, including vulnerable users such as cyclists and pedestrians, and to identify risk factors for a poor outcome
- Work with road safety policy makers to evaluate road safety policy changes and disseminate our findings and recommendations
Long-Term Goals
- To help make British Columbia’s roads the safest in the world
