SPEED LIMITS LOWERED

Serious crashes spark move

The B.C. government is immediately lowering speed limits on 15 of the 33 highway sections in which speeds were increased by 10 km/h by the previous Liberal government.

This after a review of three years of police and ICBC data showed an overall increase in serious accidents involving injuries and fatalities on roads for which the former government implemented speed hikes in 2014.

The safety evaluation showed serious collisions increased 11.2 per cent overall on road segments where the speed limit was changed.

There were 63 collisions involving fatalities on the affected highways in the three years before the 2014 speed-limit changes. And in the three years after they went into effect, there were 88 fatal collisions. (The report doesn’t detail how many individuals were injured or killed, only the number of collisions involving injuries and deaths).

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Claire Trevena said that while driver inattention is the most common factor in crashes, higher speed limits are now proven to be correlated with serious crashes: “I think that any crash on any highway is one too many and the fact that we’ve seen these increases in serious collisions where speed limits were raised is reason enough to be rolling them back.”

Serious collision rates actually decreased on 16 road segments

where speed limits had increased and they will not be changed. The government had already rolled back speed limits on a few roads in 2016 after preliminary research showed additional safety risks.

Although the Coquihalla Highway, which has variable speeds, has become notorious for serious, multi-vehicle crashes, the government won’t roll back speeds there because the data didn’t show an association between speed hikes and more crashes. Indeed, the new review found that on the Coquihalla the top three contributing factors for more crashes were driver distraction, poor road conditions and driving too fast for conditions. Those are also the top three factors contributing to serious collisions on all provincial highways, according to the government.

Trevena said the government has recently been “tightening up” contracts with highway maintenance contractors to ensure roads are in “the best condition possible” this

winter. She expects there will be more educational and awareness campaigns about drivers’ responsibilities and she’s expecting police will enforce the lower speed limits. As to individual drivers:

“People have to realize they have to pay attention. Vehicles are powerful. They kill. So we have to be aware of road conditions and have to be in control,” she said.

Excess speed is listed as a factor in only two per cent of serious crashes, the same as driving impaired. Driving while distracted is implicated in almost a quarter of crashes on the highways where speed limits were changed. According to an ICBC study in 2016, speed is a contributing factor to 30 per cent of all deadly crashes.

Highway 99 (Sea to Sky) and the Trans-Canada and Vancouver Island highways will be affected by the speed rollbacks. The entire route from Horseshoe Bay to Pemberton will see road speeds reduced by 10 km/ h.

“As transportation minister, nothing is more important to me than the safety of people on our roads,” Trevena said, adding that she doubts there are any benefits to speed-limit increases and can’t think of any as long as there are more accidents causing injuries and deaths.

While the most common contributing factor for crashes was driver inattentiveness, the report is consistent with a recent study by University of B.C. experts that showed an increase in fatalities, injuries, crashes and insurance claims on some of the roads where speed limits were raised.

Jeff Brubacher, an emergency department physician and lead author of the study published last month, said the government is “fixing the mistake made by her predecessor and it’s good news.”

“The limits shouldn’t have been increased in the first place and former transport minister (Todd Stone) should have rolled the limits back years ago when evaluations showed the situation getting worse.”

The fact that we’ve seen these increases in serious collisions where speed limits were raised is reason enough to be rolling them back.