Former minister pans speed limit study
MLA Stone says findings don’t take certain factors into consideration, but the authors disagree
Todd Stone, the Kamloops MLA who, as provincial transportation minister, brought in higher speed limits on 1,300 kilometres of rural highways, says new research that implicates the increases in more motor vehicle crashes, fatalities and injuries, is “full of gaps.”
The federal government-funded study by a University of B.C. team was published in the journal Sustainability. The research was led by emergency physician Dr. Jeff Brubacher, one of Canada’s most prolific researchers in the area of road safety.
After an article was published by Postmedia, Stone sent an email complaining about the study. He said he spent two days collecting more facts and context.
“To say that it is full of gaps and data analysis challenges is an understatement,” Stone said about the study.
He also told Kamloops This Week that the findings were “irresponsible” since they don’t take weather, distracted driving and other factors into consideration.
Stone could not be reached for further comment Monday.
But the authors stand by their work, the most substantive published research done on the effects of the changes that meant B.C. has the highest speed limits, 120 km/h on some highways, in Canada.
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said last week that the provincial government is reviewing the study, along with its own analysis, and will make an announcement soon about whether to roll back speeds to former limits.
Premier John Horgan told some journalists in Victoria that he found the study findings shocking and cabinet would soon be re-evaluating the speed-limit hikes.
Brubacher said his team analyzed more than 16 years of data on fatal crashes, auto-insurance claims and ambulance dispatches for road trauma.
Crash rates across the whole province didn’t change, but on roads where the speed limits were increased, there was a 43 per cent increase in auto-insurance claims, a 30 per cent increase in claims that resulted in an injury and an estimated 118 per cent increase in fatal crashes (equal to 15 more fatal crashes per year), Brubacher said.
“We feel it is very unlikely that these changes are explained by bad weather or distraction, as Mr. Stone suggests, because they are localized to a narrow corridor along the highways with raised speed limits.”