THE ALBERTA
COLLISION RATES SCOREBOARD
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ABOUT
ABOUT THE COST OF COLLISIONS
The cost of collisions is the sum of direct and indirect costs.
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Direct costs include medical expenses, property damage, legal fees, and insurance claims.
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Indirect costs are estimated using one of two methods:
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the Human Capital Cost method determines the economic value lost to injuries and fatalities such as lost wages, productivity and the economic impact on families and communities,
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the Willingness-to-Pay method is based on the value that people place on reducing the risk of collisions and casualties and the associated emotional and psychological impacts.
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In Canada, Human Capital Cost is used to estimate the indirect cost of collisions whereas the Willingness-to-Pay approach is used in the U.S.
ABOUT THE COST OF COLLISONS IN CANADA AND ALBERTA
Transport Canada has estimated the cost of collisions in Canada for the years 1996 through 2020 (https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/statistics-data). For 2020,
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the cost of collisions for Canada is estimated to be 1.92% of GDP,
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the cost of collisions for Ontario is estimated to be 1.5% of provincial GDP,
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by ratioing collision fatality rates, the cost of collisions for Alberta is estimated to be about 2.5% of provincial GDP.
(Meeting or beating the dashed blue line of Fig. 9 will reduce the cost of collisions for Alberta to about 1.5% of provincial GDP, thereby helping to withstand the effect of tariffs on trade to the U.S. In January 2025, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce indicated that a 25% U.S. tariff on imported goods from Canada could shrink Canada’s GDP by 2.6%.)
ABOUT THE COSTS OF CRIME AND COLLISIONS IN MICHIGAN
People at the Transportation Research Institute of the University of Michigan have issued six reports over twenty years that compare the costs of crime and collisions in the state. The most recent 778 page release entitled SOCIETAL COSTS OF TRAFFIC CRASHES AND CRIME IN MICHIGAN: 2023 UPDATE, REPORT UMTRI-2023-19, can be downloaded at
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/191550.
Note that the Willingness-to-Pay method is used to estimate indirect costs, and that the mix and per capita rate of crime and collision events in Alberta and Michigan, as well as tolerances of unintentional and intentional harm, may be dissimilar.
ABOUT PROGRAM AND WEBSITE SUCCESSION
Once the quarterly data supply becomes established, the hope is to transition this initiative to groups that include high school seniors, School Resource Officers, and community service organizations.
ABOUT DOUG TAYLOR
Two of Doug’s experiences combined to create an interest in providing public road users with better information so that they might reduce the frequency and severity of avoidable harm:
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the first, when Doug was about to enter elementary school, was a pair of related collisions that resulted in fatal injuries to his closest aunt and her youngest son,
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the second, while working as a professional engineer in the engineering, construction, initial start-up and operation, of worldscale facilities in the Alberta energy and petrochemical industry, was participation in the workplace safety transformation that began in the 1980s.
The fatal collisions shattered the family of Doug’s aunt, resulting in Doug’s parents and grandparents providing ongoing care and homes for her other two children.
The workplace experience showed how some simple and well-established tools can facilitate positive cultural change. Workplace safety improved so much that driving to and from work became the more hazardous workday activity. Over time, the change led to questioning why at least some of what worked so well at work – such as timely and meaningful error and consequence information combined with comparative performance feedback – would not also work when driving to and from work and elsewhere.
Drive safer – always,
Doug Taylor,
Safer Vehicle Use Limited,
Red Deer, AB