Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2004

TP 3322 E - Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collisions 2004
(PDF, 1.1 MB)

Collisions and Casualties - 1985-2004
Fatalities and Injuries by Age Group
Fatalities by Road User Class - 2000-2004
Fatalities - 1985-2004
Casualty Rates
Percentage of Fatally Injured Drivers Tested and Found to Have Been Drinking
Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries Where Victims Were not Using Seat Belts - 2000-2004
Number of Collisions by Location
Percentage of Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Road User Class
Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Age Group
Number of Licensed Drivers by Gender and by Age
Licensed Drivers and Motor Vehicle Registrations by Type of Vehicle - 1985-2004

The decline in police reporting in British Columbia in the years 1996 through 2004 has affected the British Columbia totals and, to a lesser extent, national totals reported in this publication.

To find out more about national road safety programs or initiatives, call Transport Canada toll free at 1-800-333-0371 or e-mail us at roadsafetywebmail@tc.gc.ca. You can also visit our site Motor Vehicle Safety or the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators.

Road Safety and Motor Vehicle
Regulation Directorate
Transport Canada
Tower C, Place de Ville
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N5

Collisions and Casualties - 1985-2004

	Collisions		Victims
Year	Fatal ^{Footnote 1}	Personal Injury ^{Footnote 2}	Fatalities ^{Footnote 3}	Serious Injuries ^{Footnote 4}	Injuries ^{Footnote 5} (Total)
1985	3,774	179,704	4,362 ^{Footnote r}	27,057	259,264 ^{Footnote r}
1986	3,510	184,053	4,063 ^{Footnote r}	27,157	265,160 ^{Footnote r}
1987	3,729	193,237	4,283 ^{Footnote r}	28,000	280,605 ^{Footnote r}
1988	3,610	190,094	4,154	28,031	278,820 ^{Footnote r}
1989	3,651	192,595	4,238 ^{Footnote r}	27,422	284,937
1990	3,445	178,515	3,963	25,183	262,680
1991	3,228	170,693	3,690	26,035	249,217
1992	3,073	169,640	3,501	25,521	249,823 ^{Footnote r}
1993	3,121	168,106	3,615	23,902	247,593 ^{Footnote r}
1994	2,869	166,780	3,263	22,830	245,110
1995	2,854	164,190	3,351	21,494	241,935
1996	2,708	156,282	3,091	20,170	230,894 ^{Footnote r}
1997	2,646 ^{Footnote r}	150,118	3,063 ^{Footnote r}	19,027	221,499 ^{Footnote r}
1998	2,612	148,414	2,949	18,460	217,901 ^{Footnote r}
1999	2,636	151,110	2,985	17,582	222,579 ^{Footnote r}
2000	2,569	156,000	2,927	17,283	227,516 ^{Footnote r}
2001^{Footnote *}	2,434	151,834	2,781	16,997	221,121
2002	2,593	157,074	2,931 ^{Footnote r}	17,830	227,983 ^{Footnote r}
2003	2,484 ^{Footnote r}	154,420 ^{Footnote r}	2,766 ^{Footnote r}	17,730	222,455 ^{Footnote r}
2004*	2,434	148,866	2,730	17,533	212,347

Footnote 1

"Fatal collisions" include all reportable motor vehicle crashes which resulted in at least one fatality, where death occurred within 30 days of collision, except in Quebec (8 days).

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

"Personal injury collisions" include all reportable motor vehicle crashes which resulted in at least one injury but not death within the timeframes set out in "fatal collisions".

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

"Fatalities" include all those who died as a result of involvement in a reportable traffic collision within 30 days of its occurrence, except in Quebec (8 days).

Return to footnote 3 referrer

Footnote 4

"Serious Injuries" include persons admitted to hospital for treatment or observation. These are published here for the first time due to non-reporting in British Columbia prior to 2004. Serious injuries for British Columbia are estimated from 1985 to 2003 and for January, February and March 2004.

Return to footnote 4 referrer

Footnote 5

"Total Injuries" include minimal, minor, moderate, serious and unspecified severities.

Return to footnote 5 referrer

Footnote *

Data for Nunavut are not reported for 2001 except for fatalities.
Data for Ontario are preliminary for 2004.

Return to footnote * referrer

Footnote r

Revised.

Return to footnote r referrer

Fatalities and Injuries by Age Group

Age Group	Fatalities	Serious Injuries	Injuries (Total)
0 - 4	13	292	2,717
5 - 14	79	896	11,729
15 - 19	303	2,275	25,596
20 - 24	392	2,499	28,021
25 - 34	419	2,990	37,760
35 - 44	386	2,714	35,870
45 - 54	343	2,302	29,677
55 - 64	271	1,438	17,197
65 +	489	1,717	16,363
Not stated	35	410	7,417
Total	2,730	17,533	212,347

Note: The "Serious Injuries" for British Columbia are estimated for January, February and March 2004.

Fatalities by Road User Class - 2000-2004

Road User Class		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Drivers	#	1,467	1,443	1,515^{Footnote r}	1,427^{Footnote r}	1,419
	%	50.1	51.9	51.7	51.6	52.0
Passengers	#	749	654	712	649^{Footnote r}	657
	%	25.6	23.5	24.3	23.5	24.1
Pedestrians	#	372	335	368	379^{Footnote r}	366
	%	12.7	12.0	12.6	13.7	13.4
Bicyclists	#	40	60	63	44^{Footnote r}	56
	%	1.4	2.2	2.0	1.6	2.0
*Motorcyclists ^{Footnote }**	#	173	157	172	177^{Footnote r}	199
	%	5.9	5.6	5.9	6.4	7.3
Not stated/Other	#	126	132	101	90^{Footnote r}	33
	%	4.3	4.7	3.4	3.3	1.2
Total	#	2,927	2,781	2,931^{Footnote r}	2,766^{Footnote r}	2,730
	%	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Fatalities - 1985-2004

Casualty Rates

	Per 100,000 Population		Per Billion Vehicle-Kilometres*		Per 100,000 Licensed Drivers
	Fatalities	Injuries	Fatalities	Injuries	Fatalities	Injuries
Canada	8.5	664.7	8.8	680.8	12.6	979.8
N.L.	7.2	516.6	9.7	699.1	10.8	779.2
P.E.I.	20.3	681.1	22.6	759.5	28.8	964.6
N.S.	9.6	546.2	9.4	533.2	13.7	776.5
N.B.	9.4	562.4	9.6	572.9	13.4	800.0
Que.	8.6	740.9	9.0	778.0	13.7	1,182.9
Ont.	6.5	588.7	6.6	599.8	9.3	842.9
Man.	8.5	796.3	9.5	890.8	14.3	1,343.0
Sask.	12.7	745.2	11.0	647.1	18.8	1,107.4
Alta.	12.1	757.3	9.9	621.5	16.2	1,015.1
B.C.	10.2	694.3	12.4	842.4	15.0	1,019.2
Y.T.	16.0	679.3	9.4	397.4	21.4	907.0
N.W.T.	7.0	352.7	9.6	485.2	9.7	487.8
Nvt.	3.4	222.6	33.7	2,222.2	n.a.	n.a.

* Statistics Canada, 'Canadian Vehicle Survey', Catalogue No. 53-223-XIE.

Note: Data for Ontario are preliminary for 2004.
There is no official abbreviation for Nunavut at this time. The abbreviation used here is provisional.

n.a. Licensed driver data is not available for Nunavut.

Percentage of Fatally Injured Drivers Tested and Found to Have Been Drinking

* BAC : Blood Alcohol Concentration.

mg %: Weight of alcohol in the bloodstream stated as milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood.

Note: BAC categories are reported as 81-160 mg % and > 160 mg % for 2001 and 2002. 2003 data were not available at the time of publication.

Source: Traffic Injury Research Foundation.

Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries Where Victims Were not Using Seat Belts - 2000-2004

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Drivers
Fatalities	36,8	38,7	36,4	36,8	36,0
Serious Injuries	15,5	16,0	13,2	14,6	14,6

Passengers
Fatalities	35,2	41,1	33,9	37,4	35,3
Serious Injuries	21,4	23,1	19,1	19,8	21,2

Note: "Serious Injuries" include victims admitted to hospital for treatment or observation.
"Serious Injuries" prior to 2004 do not include British Columbia. The percentage of "Serious Injuries" for British Columbia are estimated for January, February and March 2004.

Number of Collisions by Location

Location	Fatal	Personal Injury
Urban ¹	894	105,227
Rural ²	1,515	41,533
Not stated	25	2,106
Total	2,434	148,866

¹ Urban includes:

metropolitan roads and streets and other urban areas, or
a speed limit at the collision site of 60 km/h or less.

² Rural includes:

primary or secondary highways, as well as local roads, or
a speed limit at the collision site exceeding 60 km/h .

Note: In Alberta, "Urban" includes any area within the boundaries of a city, town, village or hamlet. "Rural" includes any area outside of what is defined as "Urban".

Percentage of Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Road User Class

Road User Class	Fatalities	Serious Injuries
Drivers	52.0	50.1
Passengers	24.1	27.3
Pedestrians	13.4	9.9
Bicyclists	2.0	3.3
Motorcyclists	7.3	7.6
Not Stated/Other	1.2	1.8
Total	100.0	100.0

Note: The percentage of "Serious Injuries" for British Columbia are estimated for January, February and March 2004.

Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Age Group

	Fatalities		Serious Injuries
Age Group	Drivers	Passengers	Drivers	Passengers
0 - 4	0.0	1.4	0.0	5.0
5 - 14	0.2	7.7	0.6	9.5
15 - 19	8.8	19.0	10.6	19.0
20 - 24	14.6	15.5	15.0	15.0
25 - 34	17.5	12.0	20.0	13.6
35 - 44	17.0	9.5	18.8	9.9
45 - 54	14.9	9.6	15.7	8.6
55 - 64	11.1	7.7	9.5	5.7
65 +	15.4	16.6	9.5	9.9
Not Stated	0.5	1.0	0.3	3.8
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Note: The percentage of "Serious Injuries" for British Columbia are estimated for January, February and March 2004.

Number of Licensed Drivers by Gender and by Age

This table of licensed drivers was revised to correct an error in the reporting of male and female drivers in one jurisdiction. The print version of the 2004 pamphlet will not be reproduced.

Number of Licensed Drivers by Gender and by Age

Age Group	Males	Females	Total^*
< 16	26,672	17,243	43,915
16 - 19	549,233	483,104	1,032,339
20 - 24	921,898	844,074	1,765,983
25 - 34	1,965,880	1,864,267	3,830,149
35 - 44	2,422,725	2,279,595	4,702,331
45 - 54	2,307,211	2,150,297	4,457,527
55 - 64	1,623,717	1,438,695	3,062,424
65 +	1,549,126	1,229,583	2,778,722
Total*	11,366,473	10,306,860	21,673,403

*Gender and/or age was not stated for 70 drivers.

Licensed Drivers and Motor Vehicle Registrations by Type of Vehicle - 1985-2004

	Licensed Drivers ¹	Passenger Automobiles	Commercial Vehicles ²	Motorcycles ³
1985	15,964	11,118	3,213	487
1986	16,226	11,586	3,285	465
1987	16,927	11,686	3,659	448
1988	17,155	12,086	3,850	400
1989	17,592	12,380	3,962	378
1990	17,718	12,622	4,000	359
1991	18,090	12,578	3,516	350
1992	18,465	12,781	3,461	339
1993	18,843	12,925	3,455	337
1994	19,243	13,131	3,510	330
1995	19,327	13,192	3,535	320
1996	19,964	13,251	3,620	312
1997	20,148	13,515	3,684	319
1998	20,744^e	13,887	3,767	334
1999	20,934	16,538	722	274
2000	20,593	16,832	739	311
2001	20,879	17,055	729	318
2002	21,163	17,543	724	350
2003	21,436	17,755	740	373
2004	21,673	17,920	752	409

¹ Excludes temporary permits prior to 1999.

² Pre-1999, these registrations include trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles, such as vans. From 1999, these registrations include commercial vehicles (trucks and buses) greater than 4 500 kg .

³ Includes mopeds.

^e Estimated.

Source: 1985 to 1998: Statistics Canada, Catalogue No 53-219, "Road Motor Vehicles - Registrations". From 1999, motor vehicle registration data are from Statistics Canada, CANSIM, Table 405-0004. From 1999, licensed driver data were provided by each jurisdiction.

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