According to Transport Canada, there were over 124,000 vehicle collisions that resulted in injury or death in 2009 (according to the most recent statistics). That is a lot of collisions... and it comes at a high human cost. And with the constant increase in cars on the road, and a growing population, it's not likely that those numbers have decreased or even stayed the same since 2009.
But what would happen if we could decrease those numbers? What would happen if every driver tried to improve their skills? What would happen if every driver became even slightly better?
If all Canadians pitched in to become safer drivers – even SLIGHTLY safer drivers, and we could reduce the number of injury- or death-causing collisions by even 1%, that would mean 1240 fewer collisions this year! That's 100 fewer collisions each month.
That's a huge number of people who would be injury free; that's a huge number of people who would live longer; that's a huge number of families whose lives wouldn’t be disrupted or even torn apart by collision.
And along with the personal costs, there are other benefits, too: Insurance rates wouldn't be impacted upwards; tax dollars wouldn't be spent on using ambulance resources, hospital resources, and police resources to respond to these collisions.
… All from a slight drop in collisions.
It is entirely possible to drive this number downward and the benefits are very real, even if the drop is as small as 1%!
You can do your part in reducing the number of injury- and death-causing collisions in Canada by driving safer and driving smarter. It all starts with improving your safe driving skills. Over the next 12 months, we'll be dedicating one blog post per month to improving specific safe driving skills. We'll talk about the specific skill and we'll give you some tips and practical ideas to improve that skill.
The potential results are exciting: You'll drive increasingly safer with each passing month. You'll get where you want to go and you'll feel good about doing your part to reduce the number of collisions on the road… and who knows, you might even detect some of the "spin off" benefits like lower interest rates and better use of taxes.
None of these skills are going to be jaw-dropping, eye-popping things you've never heard of. But that's okay. A constant reminder of improvement in the tried-and-true areas that you are familiar with will help you to make the small but necessary changes toward safer driving.
Boyd Autobody & Glass is there to help. Along with providing safe driving tips and ideas on this blog and our collision repair website, we also have collision repair locations all over Western Canada to help you if you get into a collision.
