Motor Vehicle

Motor vehicle collisions are one of the leading causes of unintentional injury death across all ages in BC. The cost per crash in BC was estimated as $8.4 billion in 2018.1 The total health care cost of transport incidents was $370 million in 2010.2
The majority of collisions involve injury to occupants but injury also occurs among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists resulting in approximately 175 crashes per day in BC that result in almost 1 fatality and 10 acute hospitalizations per day.3 4 Speeding, distracted driving (ex. mobile phone use) and impaired driving (alcohol, drugs or medications) are the leading contributing factors for motor vehicle collisions.

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Quick Facts & Stats

Speeding was the most common contributing factor for fatalities among individuals aged 16-25 years, followed by distraction and impairment. Speeding followed by impairment were the most common contributing factors for fatalities among individuals aged 26-45 years. Distraction was a key contributing factor for fatalities among individuals aged 66 years and over.

Injuries from cycling were the most common cause of hospitalizations among ages 0-14 years, while motor vehicle occupant injuries were the most common cause among all other age groups. Pedestrian injury hospitalizations rates were highest among the older adults aged 75 and over.

Fatalities among pedestrians occurred more in speed zones of 30-50 km/hr. Distraction and failing to yield right of way were the common contributing factors for the pedestrian fatalities that occurred at this speed zone.5

Approximately 19% of all motor vehicle occupant fatalities occurred in speed zone of 30-50 km/hr. Speeding and distraction were the common contributing factors for the occupant fatalities that occurred at this speed zone.6

 About 40% of time-loss claims to WorkSafe BC for motor vehicle incidents were from the transportation and warehousing industry.

 

Prevention

Best Evidence Crash Prevention Strategies by Road User

Information & Resources

Cochrane Systematic Reviews on Transport Related Topics

Prevention of Traffic Crashes

Prevention of injuries to motor vehicle occupants

Prevention of motorcycle-related injuries

Other Transport-Related Systematic Review

How to Find Evidence-Based Materials Related to Transport-Related Research

DARE (Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects)

  • Contain summaries of systematic reviews which have met strict quality criteria. Each summary also provides a critical commentary on the quality of the review.
    DARE is available free of charge: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CRDWeb/

Cochrane Library

  • Is an electronic publication which consists of a collection of evidence-based medicine databases, including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) are available free of charge: http://www.cochrane.org

TRIP (Turning Research into Practice)

Transportation Research Board

Campbell Collaboration Reviews of Interventions and Policy Evaluation

Community Guide Systematic Reviews of Motor Vehicle Crash Prevention

Resources: British Columbia

Resources: Canada

Resources: International

  1. Default Values for Benefit Cost Analysis in BC (2018). Prepared for the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Planning and Programming Branch by Apex Engineering Limited: British Columbia. ↩
  2. Rajabali F, Ibrahimova A, Barnett B, Pike I. (2015). Economic Burden of Injury in British Columbia. BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit: Vancouver, BC. ↩
  3. See footnote 1; Quick Statistics (2017). ICBC: BC. ↩
  4. Discharge Abstract Database, Ministry of Health, 2018. ↩
  5. Data Source: Business Information Warehouse – Traffic Accident System, Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Retrieved from Injury Data Online Tool (iDOT), BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, 2017. ↩
  6. See Footnote 5. ↩