Maritimes miss the mark on road safety according to new study

When it comes to safe roadways, the Maritimes just haven’t met the mark; in fact, a new study deems the provinces as the top three most dangerous in Canada for car crashes.

Preszler Injury Lawyers, personal injury lawyers in Ontario, looked into the latest data from Transport Canada, which showed the number of car crash deaths per 100,000 people in 2021.

Prince Edward Island came in at the top of the list, seeing 10.5 deaths per 100,000. Next was New Brunswick with 8.6 car crash fatalities per 100,000, and in third was Nova Scotia with 7.7 deaths per 100,000.

“By using this data to understand which provinces and territories in Canada suffer from the highest numbers of deaths and accidents from car crashes, public bodies and policymakers can provide targeted safety improvements and information for these areas,” said a spokesperson for the company through a press release.

New Brunswick Green Party leader David Coon is calling on the province’s public safety minister for an immediate in-depth investigation.

“It seems like every week more New Brunswickers die in fatal car crashes and it’s horrendous and yet we haven’t heard anything from government on this. So that’s why I want the minister responsible for public safety to launch an investigation into the causes of our crashes, figure out what the problems are, diagnosis it and implement solutions to reduce the deaths on our roads and highways,” he said.

“It’s unacceptable.”

Coon says he doesn’t know of any other investigation like the one he’s asking for, but says the information is available and it’s now just a question of doing an assessment and coming up with an action plan.

“To get to the bottom of this, high-rated fatal accidents on the road, we need the diagnosis, what are the most significant causes of these crashes and then a plan to address those,” he said. “I’ve gone through the RCMP annual report recently because of my concern over this, to review what they had found. 2022 was the most recent numbers and there were a variety of causes, but they need some proper assessment to come up with the best solutions and then act on that.”

New Brunswick Public Safety Minister Kris Austin said while he hasn’t had a chance to dig into the report from Preszler Injury Lawyers yet, a number of steps have already been taken across the province to improve safety on roadways and highways.

Austin points out new legislation has been passed to increase fines and penalties for those caught speeding or stunt driving. Police can now make roadside suspensions for those caught drinking and driving, which gets officers back on the road to patrol quicker.

“We’re looking at the traffic enforcement unit, we’ll be acting that here soon, we’ve also increased RCMP by 15 per cent here in New Brunswick, so that’s a huge step up in terms of more officers on the street,” said Austin.

He notes they are still in the process of hiring more officers to get to the full increase.

“We are also in the process now of looking at a highway enforcement […],” he said. “The RCMP already have a highway unit, but we’re looking to expand that or have a unit within our own department to do highway enforcement, but those are two things we’re actively looking at now internally.”

As for if he plans to conduct a study, he says he as “no interest” in that.

“We are going to continue to create that action to make roads safer,” he said. “Getting a bunch of suits and ties sitting around a stuffy room in Fredericton isn’t going to solve this problem. Strong legislation, enforcement and having police on the street, I think, will do it.”