Grant: Operating Grant: Population Health Intervention Research

Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs), the leading cause of death in young adults, are a major societal problem. The majority of fatal crashes are caused by speeding, driving after using alcohol, and distracted driving. British Columbia recently changed its Motor Vehicle Act with laws that target these dangerous behaviours. These new laws, the strictest in North America, include immediate and severe penalties for impaired driving, speeding, or driving while using a cell phone. By targeting the underlying causes of most motor vehicle crashes, these laws have the potential to prevent many traffic injuries and deaths. Our team of researchers works closely with road safety administrators including the BC Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, and with community stakeholders including the British Columbia Automobile Association, the Insurance Corporation of BC, and The Community Against Preventable Injuries, an injury prevention social marketing organization. We propose to conduct an in depth evaluation of the recent changes to BC's Motor Vehicle Act. The effectiveness of traffic laws may vary depending on many factors such as public awareness of and compliance with the laws, the number of traffic police, how aggressively police enforce the laws, and availability of alternate modes of transportation. These factors may vary from region to region and from time to time. Our evaluation will make use of many sources of road injury data including insurance claims, police crash reports, ambulance records, the hospital admissions. We will investigate whether the number of crashes or injuries decreased after the new laws went into effect and we will determine whether the factors mentioned above had an influence on this outcome. Our findings will influence British Columbia's road safety strategy and will be of great interest to traffic safety lawmakers from other Canadian Provinces and Territories and across North America.