From a public health perspective, there are still far too many road victims due to collisions that are mostly preventable: 704 deaths and 6,397 serious injuries, according to the SAAQ (2005). Their road safety statistics covering the five years from 2000 to 2005 show a general upward trend in Quebec. Indeed, the number of victims killed rose by more than 9% between 2004 and 2005, and serious injuries rose by 14.2%. In the hospital network, this represents an average of more than 4,000 hospitalizations per year (INSPQ, 2006).
The significant gains achieved over the last twenty years are mainly due to programs aimed at reducing the incidence of driving while impaired by alcohol (DWI), entrenching the use of seatbelts, and encouraging the construction of safer vehicles. However,...