Urban Traffic Safety Conference 2012:

Campaign 2010: Rushed Left Turn

Campaign 2009: Real Consequences – Speed

• City of Edmonton Office of Traffic Safety
• Edmonton Police Service Traffic and Vehicles
• Alberta RCMP Traffic Safety
• Strathcona County Traffic Safety Strategic Plan
• Alberta Health Services Automobile and Traffic Safety
• Alberta Traffic Safety Plan
• Safe Roads
• Government of Alberta Transportation
• Curb the Danger Program
• AMTA: Alberta Motor Transport Association
• UN Decade of Road Safety
• Dangerous By Design
• 3 Way Street
• Bike Box Video - Guelph

CRISP Public Awareness Campaign: Drive to Live!

The Capital Region Intersection Safety Partnership (CRISP), a partnership of Capital Region safety experts, is spreading another hard-hitting message to drivers in an effort to save lives on Capital Region roads.

On Monday November 6, CRISP launched a major public awareness campaign, “Intersection ahead. Slow down or be dead quick”, urging motorists to “Drive to Live”, particularly at intersections. The campaign will utilize billboard, radio and print advertising.

CRISP partners are very concerned about intersection collisions in our communities. In this campaign, CRISP aims to make drivers aware of the serious nature of intersection crashes and how important it is not to speed through intersections – literally a matter of life and death.

Far too many collision victims are seen in emergency departments and hospitals. Capital Health’s emergency department staff handle over 10,000 visits for injuries sustained from transportation-related collisions and see an additional 800 hospital admissions each year¹. These hospitalizations are preventable.

A study from Australia found the risk of dying in a crash approximately doubles for each 5km/h increase in speed².

Using the example of an increase in speed from 50km/h to 60km/h,
the following results:

• Stopping distance increases from 25 metres to 33 metres
• Risk of injury crash increases by 44 per cent
• Risk of a serious injury crash increases by 73 per cent
• Risk of a fatal crash increases by 107 per cent

For pedestrians speed is particularly lethal. If hit by a vehicle traveling at 50 km/h the chance of survival is 45 per cent compared to 10 per cent chance of survival at 60km/h³.

Each year in the Capital Region there are 25,000 motor vehicle collisions. Two out of three injury collisions happen in intersections. More than one in four result in an injury or death. This represents more than 6,000 injury collisions in the Capital Region each year.

Individuals involved in a motor vehicle collision in an intersection are far more likely to be seriously injured than in other types of collisions - two out of three injury collisions happen in intersections.

In the past 10 years, over 300 individuals have died from motor vehicle collisions (based on St. Albert, Strathcona County, and City of Edmonton statistics).

¹ Based on 2001-2003 average
² “Traffic Safety”, P. 209, Leonard Evans 2004
³ WHO Report on Safety 2004