Our North American CORE Group representative Jennifer Heatley teamed up with Chair of the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee, Sarah Blades to write about some of their experiences of road safety in Canada. Their article is candid and talks about the need for increased investment in young people’s participation in road safety. You can read their article here.

Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for young people in Canada. In 2009 alone, more than 500 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were killed on Canada’s roads and almost 3000 experienced a serious injury. This age group makes up 23.4% of all driver fatalities in Canada yet are only approximately 13% of licensed drivers. They are highly over-represented in fatality data.

Like many other countries, Canada made rapid improvements in past decades with the introduction of legislation requiring the use of seatbelts and make impaired driving illegal. In past years though, we have seen a plateau rather than a decrease in fatalities and serious injuries. Impaired driving, speed, distraction and lack of seatbelt use continue to be the main contributing factors to fatal motor vehicle collisions. Youth continue to be over-represented in these statistics.

With some exceptions, the majority of road safety related legislation is sub-national meaning that is the responsibility of one of the 10 provinces or 3 territories that make up Canada. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does result in inconsistency with some provinces having stronger legislation than others. Canada’s Road Safety Strategy 2015 is a guide for provinces and territories with respect to policy and programming. Young drivers under the age of 25 are identified as a target population. Graduated drivers’ licensing (GDL) programs is one of the primary recommendations that is youth targeted. GDL allows for youth to learn to drive under the safest possible conditions such as during day time hours, with few passengers, and with zero blood alcohol. Several provinces currently have GDL programs although their strength and the components of the program vary. The Strategy does not require the provinces and territories to implement it or meet any of the targets. While this would be challenging, reducing death and injuries on Canada’s roads will require a strong political commitment to creating the conditions for safety.

Although there is programming and good work happening in the area of youth road safety, the lack of resources invested in the issue has been a challenge. One group that seeks to provide a youth voice into the structure and governance of the national layer of road safety, is the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee, or the CRSYC. In recent months, the CRSYC has experienced a change in executive and an increase in interest for participation – however without sustained financial resources to operate, and attend national events across Canada’s more than 5000km span, staying engaged is challenging.

In the past, pockets of funding from the federal government had supported the CRSYC periodically; however with the recent erosion of spending programs for road safety education and information generally, federal funds are no longer an avenue for seeking support.

The good news is that several pre-existing national level committees have welcomed participation from the CRSYC, such as the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals, the Canadian Global Road Safety Committee, The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, and the planning committee of the Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference, or CMRSC. The high level at which youth input is welcomed and valued in the CMRSC planning committee speaks well for the desire of the road safety community in Canada to engage with youth and young professionals. The CRSYC hopes to continue to collaborate on Canada’s largest gathering of Road Safety professionals, and imbed further into organizations that would like to engage a youth perspective on this serious public health issue for Canadians.

As a key risk factor to road safety, we know that over speeding on the roads leads to a higher risk of crashes and a higher risk of death or serious injury on collision. The facts are clear, if you speed, you have less control over your car, less chance of braking on time and more chance of death on collision. However, in the Northern Territory of Australia, proposals to reintroduce ‘unlimited speed limits’ on rural roads has caused an uproar amongst road safety campaigners.

Recently, YOURS HQ was contacted by campaigners from Australia’s Northern Territory calling on international campaigners to unite and take a stand against the proposal to re-introduce unlimited speed limis. Back in 2006, unlimited speed limits existed in the Northern Terrority. This unlimited speed approach was repealed after the release of statistics from a damning report that found that three times as many people were killed on NT roads than elsewhere in Australia, per capita, with one person dying and nine seriously injured every week. Further, it found that 48% of fatal crashes in the country’s top end were non-alcohol related and that 2,613 cars ran red lights at 11 intersections in just 1 month.

Senior Research Fellow of Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research at the University of New South Wales, Lori Mooren has begun an online petition calling for 1000 signatures to express to decision makers that international road safety campaigners, specialists and organizations are against this move. She said, ‘The risk of fatal crashes increases by 46% with a 5% increase in travel speed. Removal of speed limits would be a murderous act. And we can predict the number of bodies..’|

In the United States alone, studies have indicated that drugged driving has lead to a shocking correlation causing nearly a quarter of fatal crashes. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has bolstered its support to raise awareness and closely work with Federal partners, state and local authorities, community groups and organizations across the country to reduce drugged driving in America.

What is drugged driving?
“Have one [drink] for the road” was once a commonly used phrase in American culture. It has only been within the past 25 years that as a Nation, Americans and other nations have begun to recognize the dangers associated with drunk driving. And through a multipronged and concerted effort involving many stakeholders—including educators, media, legislators, law enforcement, and community organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving—the Nation has seen a decline in the numbers of people killed or injured as a result of drunk driving. But it is now time that we recognize and address the similar dangers that can occur with drugged driving.

The principal concern regarding drugged driving is that driving under the influence of any drug that acts on the brain could impair one’s motor skills, reaction time, and judgment. Drugged driving is a public health concern because it puts not only the driver at risk but also passengers and others who share the road. However, despite the knowledge about a drug’s potentially lethal effects on driving performance and other concerns that have been acknowledged by some public health officials, policy officials, and constituent groups, drugged driving laws have lagged behind alcohol-related driving legislation, in part because of limitations in the current technology for determining drug levels and resulting impairment. *Source: DrugAbuse.gov

On September 6, 2012, GHSA announced its support of drugged driving per se laws and enhanced penalties for driving under the influence of multiple drugs.  With drugged driving per se laws, also known as zero tolerance laws,  a driver can be charged with impaired driving solely for having a drug is his/her system. Seventeen states currently have enacted these laws.  Additionally, GHSA is encouraging states to adopt an enhanced penalty for driving under the influence of multiple drugs, such as a combination of alcohol and another drug, or the combination of multiple drugs (other than alcohol).

“Drugged driving is a lot more complex than drunk driving because there are so many drugs and no national standards like there are for drunk driving. That makes it much more difficult for states to effectively address this growing problem. Drug per se laws are one of the few tools that states can use that will help get drugged drivers off the road.”  – Barbara Harsha, GHSA Executive Director

In the United Kingdom, a focus on drugged driving has given rise to the ever creative Think! campaigns that raise awareness of drugging and driving and its impacts on driving. In a unique approach, the campaign illustrates how drivers who think concealing that they are drugged is much easier than concealing drink driving are challenged on that basis that ‘Your eyes will give you away’.

Other myths challenged by the NZ Drug Foundation includes the notion that drugs will increase driving skills.

Some people think that if amphetamines work for fighter pilots then they must be good for my driving too. While amphetamines and other stimulant drugs may make you feel like you could fly a jet plane, there is a big difference between you heading out to party and an Air Force fighter pilot going into battle.  Fighter pilots are prescribed controlled doses of medical grade amphetamines and their health is constantly assessed and monitored. 

This is a far cry from the typical night out on the pills for a recreational stimulant drug user.  Many unknown factors around recreational stimulant use make it unsafe to drive – you can never be sure what it is you’re taking and how it’s going to affect you, you don’t know what dose you’ve taken, and chances are you’ve used other drugs during the course of the night and their effects could be masked by the stimulants you’re on.  Onto it you may feel, but a fighter pilot you are not!

Some factsResearchers put ecstasy users into a driving simulator after taking ecstasy, and they crashed more often than when they drove without any ecstasy in their systems[1]. 

• Stimulant drugs were detected in the blood of 54 drivers who died on New Zealand roads between 2004 and 2009
• One in ten potentially impaired drivers killed on New Zealand roads had a stimulant drug in their system when they crashed.