Winter is the longest season in Quebec. Statistics show that approximately 90 percent of road vehicles were equipped with winter tires during the winter of 2005. Based on a quick tally that was carried out at that time, 38 percent of the accidents that occurred during the winter involved at least one vehicle that was equipped with all-season tires, which means that these tires were strongly over-represented in these accidents. In an effort to improve the safety of road users, the Act to amend the Highway Safety Code and the Regulation respecting demerit points was adopted in December 2007. The Act sets out the obligation to equip certain vehicles with winter tires. In order to verify the impact of this measure on the road safety record, accident data for the first mandatory period, namely from December 15, 2008 to March 15, 2009, were compared to those for the same winter periods during the five years preceding the legal obligation, namely from 2003 to 2008. A similar verification was carried out for the remainder of the year in order to factor in the changes that occurred in this record over time. The results of this analysis indicate that the drop in the number of accident victims was greater during the winter period when winter tires were mandatory, with a net decrease in the number of victims of 5 percent. This report was originally published in French at the TAC 2010 Annual Conference as Un nouvelle mesure rendant les pneus d'hiver obligitoires au Quebec (see ITRD number F160273, translated by authors). For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E220308.
Abstract