Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2015

Collected in cooperation with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators

TP 3322 - Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2015
(PDF, 2 MB)

Introduction

Transport Canada's National Collision Database (NCDB) contains data on all reportable motor vehicle collisions in Canada that the provinces and territories provide each year.

The federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada work to improve road safety to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries and to have the safest roads in the world.

The year 2015 saw a decrease in the number of serious injuries, yet showed a slight increase in fatalities and total injuries.

In 2015, the number of motor vehicle fatalities was 1,858; up 0.3% from 2014 (1,852).
The downward trend for serious injuries continued, dropping to 10,280 in 2015; down 1.1% from 2014 (10,397).
The number of fatalities per 100,000 population was 5.2 in 2015; unchanged from the rate seen in 2014.
The number of fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres travelled was 5.1 in 2015, the lowest on record.

Collisions and Casualties 1996-2015

Year	Collisions		Victims
Year	Fatal^{Footnote 1}	Personal Injury^{Footnote 2}	Fatalities^{Footnote 3}	Serious Injuries^{Footnote 4}	Injuries^{Footnote 5} (Total)
1996	2,740	153,944	3,129	18,734	227,283
1997	2,660	147,549	3,076	17,294	217,401
1998	2,583	145,615	2,919	16,410	213,319
1999	2,632	148,683	2,980	16,187	218,457
2000	2,548	153,290	2,904	15,581	222,848
2001	2,415	149,023	2,758	15,296	216,542
2002	2,583	153,832	2,921	15,894	222,665
2003	2,487	150,493	2,777	15,110	216,123
2004	2,438	145,150	2,735	15,572	206,104
2005	2,551	145,559	2,898	15,792	204,701
2006	2,586	142,517	2,871	16,044	199,976
2007	2,455	138,615	2,753	14,410	192,745
2008	2,193	127,571	2,431	12,851	176,394
2009	2,007	123,449	2,216	11,955	170,770
2010	2,021	123,615	2,238	11,796	172,081
2011	1,849	122,350	2,023	10,940	167,741
2012	1,837	122,663	2,079	11,087	166,479
2013	1,731	120,370	1,954^{Footnote r}	10,663	164,493
2014	1,709^{Footnote r}	113,782^{Footnote r}	1,852^{Footnote r}	10,397^{Footnote r}	155,312^{Footnote r}
2015	1,669	116,735	1,858	10,280	161,902

Footnotes

Footnote 1

"Fatal collisions" include all reported motor vehicle crashes that resulted in at least one death, where death occurred within 30 days of the collision, except in Quebec before 2007 (eight days).

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Footnote 2

"Personal injury collisions" include all reported motor vehicle crashes which resulted in at least one injury but not death within 30 days of the collision, except in Quebec before 2007 (eight days).

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Footnote 3

"Fatalities" include all those who died as a result of a reported traffic collision within 30 days of its occurrence, except in Quebec before 2007 (eight days).

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Footnote 4

"Serious Injuries" include persons admitted to hospital for treatment or observation. Serious injuries were estimated from 1996 to 2015 because several jurisdictions under-reported these numbers.

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Footnote 5

"Total Injuries" include all reported severities of injuries ranging from minimal to serious.

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Footnote r

Revised.

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Fatalities and Injuries by Age Group 2015

Age Group (yrs)	Fatalities	Serious Injuries	Injuries (Total)
0 - 4	21	98	2,198
5 - 14	30	320	6,463
15 - 19	139	959	14,836
20 - 24	204	1,269	19,086
25 - 34	282	1,823	29,991
35 - 44	216	1,472	24,200
45 - 54	263	1,539	24,686
55 - 64	275	1,287	18,648
65 +	418	1,333	16,861
Not stated	10	180	4,933
Total	1,858	10,280	161,902

Fatalities by Road User Class 2011-2015

Road User Class	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
# Drivers	1,023^{Footnote r}	1,025^{Footnote r}	964^{Footnote r}	924^{Footnote r}	925
% Drivers	50.6^{Footnote r}	49.3^{Footnote r}	49.3	49.9^{Footnote r}	49.8
# Passengers	401	457	369^{Footnote r}	352^{Footnote r}	360
% Passengers	19.8	22.0	18.9	19.0^{Footnote r}	19.4
# Pedestrians	321	326	306^{Footnote r}	301^{Footnote r}	283
% Pedestrians	15.9	15.7	15.7	16.3^{Footnote r}	15.2
# Bicyclists	57	63	69	42^{Footnote r}	47
% Bicyclists	2.8	3.0	3.5	2.3^{Footnote r}	2.5
*# Motorcyclists^{Footnote }**	175^{Footnote r}	175	198	190^{Footnote r}	200
% Motorcyclists	8.7^{Footnote r}	8.4	10.1	10.3	10.8
# Not stated/Other	46^{Footnote r}	33^{Footnote r}	48	43^{Footnote r}	43
% Not stated/Other	2.3^{Footnote r}	1.6^{Footnote r}	2.5	2.3	2.3
# Total	2,023	2,079	1,954^{Footnote r}	1,852^{Footnote r}	1,858
% Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Fatalities 1996-2015

Text description of chart

Fatalities (thousands of persons)
Year	Fatalities
1996	3,129
1997	3,076
1998	2,919
1999	2,980
2000	2,904
2001	2,758
2002	2,921
2003	2,777
2004	2,735
2005	2,898
2006	2,871
2007	2,753
2008	2,431
2009	2,216
2010	2,238
2011	2,023
2012	2,079
2013	1,954^{Footnote r}
2014	1,852^{Footnote r}
2015	1,858

Fatality Rate (per 10,000 motor vehicles registered)
Year	Fatality Rate
1996	1.82
1997	1.76
1998	1.62
1999	1.70
2000	1.62
2001	1.52
2002	1.57
2003	1.47
2004	1.43
2005	1.50
2006	1.43
2007	1.34
2008	1.15
2009	1.04
2010	1.02
2011	0.91
2012	0.93
2013	0.85
2014	0.79^{Footnote r}
2015	0.78

Casualty Rates 2015

	Fatalities	Injuries	Fatalities	Injuries	Fatalities	Injuries
	Per 100,000 Population^{Footnote 1}		Per Billion Vehicle-Kilometres^{Footnote 2}		Per 100,000 Licensed Drivers
Canada	5.2	451.6	5.1	442.5	7.4	640.6
NL	7.9	624.4	8.2	647.8	11.5	906.2
PE	12.3	353.7	12.3	354.5	17.0	488.9
NS	5.6	511.5	4.8	433.4	7.5	686.2
NB	6.6	355.8	6.0	321.6	9.0	484.3
QC	4.4	447.9	4.9	499.3	6.6	673.1
ON	3.6	401.1	3.7	401.9	5.1	562.5
MB	6.0	921.2	5.5	837.4	8.9	1,354.6
SK	10.7	489.4	8.7	396.3	15.4	707.0
AB	7.9	429.4	5.5	298.2	10.5	574.0
BC	6.3	478.9	7.7	583.7	8.8	669.5
YT	10.7	556.3	6.1	319.5	14.2	736.6
NT	6.8	183.1	7.6	204.0	11.5	310.4
NU	2.7	134.1	26.3	1,289.5	13.6	668.3

Notes: Vehicle kilometres travelled data were not available for 2015 so they were estimated using average yearly change for the years 2012-2014

Data for Ontario are preliminary for 2015. Data for New Brunswick were estimated.

Recent changes in how traffic accident reports are collected in Manitoba resulted in an increased number of injuries of a minimal nature being captured in 2015.

Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Age Group 2015

Age Group (yrs)	Drivers	Passengers	Drivers	Passengers
	Fatalities		Serious Injuries
0 - 4	0.0	4.7	0.0	3.1
5 - 14	0.0	5.6	0.0	7.5
15 - 19	7.1	10.6	7.7	15.3
20 - 24	11.5	15.6	12.5	14.5
25 - 34	18.2	10.3	19.9	15.7
35 - 44	10.7	10.3	17.0	9.5
45 - 54	16.1	8.4	16.3	8.4
55 - 64	14.6	13.9	13.3	8.3
65 +	21.8	20.1	13.2	12.6
Not Stated	0.0	0.5	0.1	5.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Number of Licensed Drivers by Gender and by Age 2015

Age Group (yrs)	Males	Females	Total
< 16	24,908	20,751	45,659
16 - 19	595,129	550,280	1,145,409
20 - 24	1,016,626	941,479	1,958,105
25 - 34	2,215,484	2,132,603	4,348,087
35 - 44	2,196,382	2,142,334	4,338,716
45 - 54	2,431,975	2,321,870	4,753,845
55 - 64	2,251,820	2,131,493	4,383,313
65 +	2,183,981	2,115,800	4,299,781
Not Stated	0	0	0
Total	12,916,305	12,356,610	25,272,915

Licensed Drivers and Motor Vehicle Registrations by Type of Vehicle (in thousands) 1996-2015

	Licensed Drivers^{Footnote 1}	Light-Duty Vehicles^{Footnote 2}	Commercial Vehicles^{Footnote 3}	Motorcycles^{Footnote 4}
1996	19,964	13,251	3,620	312
1997	20,148	13,515	3,684	319
1998	20,744	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
2005	21,937	18,124	786	443
2006	22,278	18,739	841	485
2007	22,606	19,199	872	522
2008	22,972	19,613	907	567
2009	23,198	19,877	915	595
2010	23,541	20,268	964	616
2011	23,831	20,608	1,008	631
2012	24,147	20,652	1,053	661
2013	24,630	21,262	1,072	672
2014	24,914	21,730	1,121^{Footnote r}	688
2015	25,273	22,068	1,147	709

Source: 1996 to 1998: Statistics Canada, Catalogue No. 53-219, "Road Motor Vehicles - Registrations".
From 1999, the motor vehicle registration data are from Statistics Canada, CANSIM, Table 405-0004.
From 1999 the licensed driver data were provided by each jurisdiction.

Note: A reduced level of police reporting in British Columbia in years 1996 through 2004 has affected the British Columbia totals and, to a lesser extent, national totals reported in this publication.

Percentage of Driver and Passenger Fatalities and Serious Injuries Where Victims Were Not Using Seat Belts 2011-2015

Drivers
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Fatalities	31.4	31.8	32.0	26.2	28.7
Serious Injuries	12.9	12.6	11.7	11.8	10.4

Passengers
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Fatalities	34.1	36.6	30.7	33.2	27.6
Serious Injuries	20.9	20.0	18.5	17.7	17.4

Note: "Serious Injuries" include victims admitted to hospital for treatment or observation.

Percentage of Fatalities and Serious Injuries by Road User Class 2015

Road User Class	Fatalities	Serious Injuries
Drivers	49.8	46.4
Passengers	19.4	20.2
Pedestrians	15.2	14.3
Bicyclists	2.5	4.7
Motorcyclists^{Footnote *}	10.8	12.1
Not Stated/Other	2.3	2.3
Total	100.0	100.0

Number of Collisions By Location 2015

Location	Fatal	Personal Injury
Urban^{Footnote 1}	688	86,508
Rural^{Footnote 2}	953	27,860
Not stated	28	2,367
Total	1,669	116,735

Note: In Alberta, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, "urban" includes any area within the corporate boundaries of a city, town, village or hamlet. "Rural" includes any area outside of what is defined as "Urban".

Cette publication est aussi disponible en français sous le titre Statistiques sur les collisions de la route au Canada 2015

Catalogue No. T45-3E-PDF
ISBN 1701-6223

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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 mvs-sa@tc.gc.ca. You can also visit our web site at www.tc.gc.ca/motor-vehicle-safety or the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators' web site at www.ccmta.ca.

More detailed motor vehicle collision data can be queried using the National Collision Database (NCDB) On-Line tool located at https://wwwapps2.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/7/NCDB-BNDC/p.aspx?l=en.

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