Canadian roads made it into the top
half of a survey of 33 countries’ roads for safety, according to a
story in visordown.com.
The United Kingdom’s roads, with just
3.8 fatalities per 100,000 people in 2009, were the safest, according
to the survey published by the International Transport Forum of
Paris.
Malaysian roads were the most
dangerous, wtih 23.8 fatalities per 100,000. Canadian roads sit at
14th safest, surrounded by Spain (safer) and France (not).
Australia
is just one worse than France, and the United States, with 11.1
deaths per 100,000, sits near the bottom, with the 7th most dangerous
roads. Only Poland, Korea, Cambodia, Greece, Argentina, and Malaysia
are more dangerous than America for drivers.
The report also said that motorcycle
crashes in the U.K. were down while the total number of motorcycles
on the road was higher.
See visordown for more.
I’ll buy that the UK’s roads are safer. Pervasive speed cameras, and even average speed cameras. Draconian measures to be sure, but they seem to work.
I’ll advance a theory though: It’s not that the cameras have reduced speeding, it’s more that they force drivers to pay attention to the road that has caused the reduction in fatalities.
Statistics, statistics, statistics….. Nothing to rejoice about when Canada is rated at #14 out of 33 countries in any road safety study. It might be interesting to read about the details of this “study”. From the information given, it looks like road deaths as a percentage is what they are tallying. What amazes me is that the U.K. is rated SAFEST?? Considering some of the goat paths (they call roads) they drive on over there and the per capita alcohol consumption, makes you wonder about the legitimacy of the study.