A comprehensive 10-year report by the Ontario Provincial Police shows that the overwhelming majority of fatal motor vehicle collisions were preventable.
“As we have said before, regardless of how hard the OPP works to reduce the number of lives lost in road collisions, we cannot do this alone,” said Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair, Provincial Commander of Traffic Safety and Operational Support. “Ontarians need to understand what we learn from this data, which is that the vast majority of the people who have died on our roads did not have to die.”
The majority of fatal collisions on OPP patrolled roads and highways are a result of poor driving behaviour or driver error. When officers investigate fatal collisions in which these factors were found to be present, they record the fatalities and collisions in the categories of ‘driver action,’ ‘driver condition,’ and ‘use of safety equipment.’ Four causal factors in collision deaths that are associated with these categories are consistently identified and for that reason, they are known as the ‘Big Four’: ‘alcohol/drug-related,’ ‘inattentive-related,’ ‘speed-related,’ and ‘no seat belt/helmet.’
When looking at last year's (2014) data, the OPP investigated 265 fatal road crashes which resulted in the deaths of 287 people. Below is a breakdown of how the fatalities fit into the Big Four categories:
46 deaths were alcohol/drug-related;
73 deaths were inattentive-related;
61 deaths were speed-related; and
50 deaths involved no seat belt/helmet.
During the previous year (2013), the OPP investigated 251 fatal road crashes which resulted in the deaths of 290 people:
73 deaths were alcohol/drug-related;
88 deaths were inattentive-related;
47 deaths were speed-related; and
71 deaths involved no seat belt/helmet.
It is the hope of the OPP that sharing this data – and by extension, having brokers share the data with their clients – it will raise awareness and foster better, safer driving, said Blair. (continued.)
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“We are going to publicly share our detailed collision and fatality data because if Ontarians see the extent to which their driving behaviour contributes to road deaths,” he said “they will be more aware than ever that they have the strongest influence of all in putting an end to these deaths.”
What the numbers mean
On occasion, the OPP is asked why the Big Four category numbers do not equal the total number of road deaths. The Big Four are not mutually-exclusive of each other. A collision can be counted in more than one of the four categories.
For example, if an OPP collision investigation reveals that a deceased driver was not wearing a seat belt, was impaired and texting at the time of his/her death, this fatality would be counted in the ‘attentive-related,’ ‘impaired-related’ and ‘no seat belt’ categories. There are other causal factors in collision fatalities that do not fit into the Big Four and make for a higher total value (e.g. animal-related collisions, driver under medical distress).
