Motor Vehicle

Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of unintentional injury death across all ages in BC. The majority of collisions involve injury to occupants but injury also occurs among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists resulting in approximately 1.2 fatalities and 18 hospitalizations per day in BC. Impaired driving (alcohol, drugs or medications) and distracted driving (ex. mobile phone use) are risk factors for motor vehicle collisions which costs the BC healthcare system approximately $8.8 billion per year.1

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Quick Facts & Stats

Causes

  • Human condition (ex. alcohol involved; drugs involved; extreme fatigue), followed by human action (ex. driving without due care; failing to signal; improper passing), are the leading contributing factors in motor vehicle-related deaths.
  • Looking at all crash fatalities from 2001-2012, the contributing factors are alcohol at 26%, drugs at 6% and alcohol and drugs combined at 3%.2

Occurrence

  • The majority of motor vehicle collisions involve injury to occupants, yet many motor vehicle-related injuries can occur among pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
  • In BC there are 1.2 motor vehicle fatalities and 18 motor vehicle injury-related hospitalizations per day.
  • The age group with the highest number of deaths and hospitalizations due to motor vehicle collisions is those aged 20-24 years, particularly males.
  • There are over 6500 motor vehicle-related hospitalizations per year, equating to almost 40,000 days in hospital.
  • There are approximately 430 deaths due to motor vehicle crashes in BC each year.
  • The age group with the greatest percentage of deaths are those aged 15-24 years, representing over 20% of motor vehicle crash deaths.
  • There are approximately 35 deaths due to motorcycle collisions with other motor vehicles each year. Those aged 20-29 years are at greatest risk.
  • There are approximately 66 deaths per year due to motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians each year. Those aged 75-84 years are at greatest risk.
  • The age group with the greatest percentage of hospitalizations are those aged 15-24 years, representing 21% of deaths.
  • There are approximately 730 motorcycle-related injuries that require hospitalization each year. Those aged 20-24 years are at greatest risk.
  • There are approximately 640 injured pedestrians that require hospitalization each year. Those aged 15-19 years are at greatest risk.

Cost

  • The social costs of motor vehicle collisions were estimated at $8.8 billion in 2007.3
  • The total cost of transport incidents in 2004 was $306 million, with $95 cost per capita.4
  • Total costs for all transport incidents in 2004 equated to $574 million ($261 million in direct costs; $313 million in indirect costs).5

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: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/

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

Cost-effectiveness analysis registry

Community Guide Systematic Reviews of Motor Vehicle Crash Prevention

Resources: British Columbia

Resources: Canada

Resources: International

  1. Data from Transport Canada 2004; Analysis and Estimation of the Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Collisions in Ontario, 2007. ↩
  2. ICBC ↩
  3. Ministry of Transportation, Analysis and Estimation of the Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Collisions in Ontario, 2007 ↩
  4. Smartrisk, 2009 ↩
  5. Smartrisk, 2009 ↩