Alcohol & Lack of Seat Belts Major Factors in Road Deaths

Island Roadway Deaths Down by 18% in 2008

With more focused enforcement and investigational effectiveness, Island District Traffic Services are now able to discuss the numbers, locations and conditions of the fatal collisions and crashes that took the lives of forty-six (46) people in RCMP jurisdictions in 2008.

Down from fifty-four (54) in 2007, it was a relatively good year for fatalities on the roadways. It does, however, become very apparent that impaired driving and lack of occupant restraints are present in ever increasing percentages of those crashes where people were killed.

Seat Belt wearing rates for the general public have been surveyed by ICBC and Speed Watch volunteers to be close to 95%. Unbelted occupants represented 37% of all the deaths.

Penalties for Driving While Impaired are more severe now than ever, yet more than 45% of the collisions involved alcohol or drug impaired drivers.

We will be focusing once again on Impaired Driving, seat belt usage, intersections and aggressive drivers for 2009. The Police on Vancouver Island and, for that matter, all through British Columbia would like to see less wrecked vehicles and broken bodies, to have less notifications of next-of-kin and to enjoy a continually decreasing number of foolish drivers.

Causal FACTORS

1 of 46 = Suicide

1 of 46 = Road Conditions

1 of 46 = Aggressive Driving

2 of 46 = Existing Medical Conditions

3 of 46 = Pedestrian Inattention

6 of 46 = Drug Impaired

8 of 46 = Speed

12 of 46 = Driver Inattention (alcohol unknown)

15 of 46 = Alcohol Impaired

17 of 46 = Not Wearing Seat Belt