This fact sheet summarizes national results from The Road Safety Monitor (RSM), 2014 on drinking and driving in Canada. The RSM is an annual public opinion survey conducted by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) under sponsorship from Beer Canada and the Toyota Canada Foundation. The survey takes the pulse of the nation on key road safety issues by means of an on-line survey of a random, representative sample of Canadian drivers. In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, 744 Canadians were killed in a traffic crash involving a drinking driver. While this disrupts the continued and consistent decrease since 2006, results from 2010 are still below the 2008 number (790), the lowest count from 1995 through 2008. An overall decreasing trend in alcohol related deaths was emerging from 2006 through 2009, but it is not clear whether this trend will continue when considering the 2010 data. This will have to be further monitored. When looking at the percentage of persons killed in a traffic crash in Canada involving a drinking driver out of all persons killed in traffic crashes on principal roadways in that year, in 2010, 33.6% of fatal crashes involved a drinking driver. This percentage has decreased from a high of 38.8% in 1995 and has been fairly consistent since 1997 remaining below 35%. (Author/publisher)
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