World Health Day 2004 is dedicated to road safety — a recognition of the burden of injuries and deaths to road users worldwide, and the need for collective action to address this problem. This fact sheet presents an overview of injuries and deaths caused by motor vehicle traffic collisions in Canada, prepared by the injury surveillance program in Health Canada and the road safety program in Transport Canada. Although Canada is one of the largest countries in the world, its population density is among the lowest. Geographical expanse combined with limited public transportation in many parts of the country leads Canadians to rely heavily on private motor vehicles. With almost 19 million vehicles on our roads and over 21 million drivers operating vehicles across more than 900,000 kilometres of roads, road transportation is important to virtually every Canadian. Unfortunately, motor vehicle traffic collisions are associated with a large number of deaths and serious injuries each year. (Author/publisher)
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