The most recent data (2018 to 2022) from the CISSS du Bas-Saint-Laurent concerning road trauma shows that on average, 19 people lost their lives each year due to a road accident in our region.
The Public Health Department unveiled its regional road trauma surveillance profile on Thursday. The statistics presented also show that 90 people were hospitalized following a road accident in Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Despite certain improvements, the region continues to stand out unfavorably compared to the rest of Quebec in terms of road safety, a trend observed for more than 40 years.
“When we look at the vehicle fleet in our region, we see that it has changed a lot over the last 20 years, especially for heavier vehicles. We have more SUVs and more pickup trucks. We are astounded to see that between 2000 and 2022, the population decreased by 2.4%, but there are 33% more vehicles for personal use. This does not include vehicles for commercial or organizational use. There is clearly a dependency on the automobile, which partly explains these results,” explains Public Health Director Dr. Sylvain Leduc.
The latter considers that the key to rectifying the road toll lies in improving the public transport service in the region, even if he admits that the current trend is not favourable, as the Keolis company offers less and less bus transport and train schedules are often set late at night, among other things.
“This is what ensures that we will present (the results) to all decision-makers so that the means are there, so that we have the levers to promote the improvement of the service,” says -he.
The demographics behind the accidents
Furthermore, the portrait tells us that three-quarters of the deaths recorded during the period between 2018 and 2022 were men, while they represent half of the population of Bas-Saint-Laurent. In addition, only 33% of hospitalizations due to a road accident were women.
Another demographic detail: young people from Bas-Laurentides aged 16 to 21 make up 5.5% of the population, but represent 10.3% of deaths and 9.2% of hospitalizations caused by road trauma.
The 20, the 132 and the others
On another note, Dr. Sylvain Leduc said he was surprised by the location of serious and fatal accidents, since 63% of them occurred outside the region’s main roads.
“We must not only look at the 20 and the 132, our gaze must be focused on the entire territory. (…) The objective of the portrait was not to position ourselves on the question whether it takes us a 20 or not, it was to situate where the traumas occur. When we identified the specific section between Trois-Pistoles and Rimouski, out of the 58 or so (accidents) that occur there per year, it is 2.3. Each accident is tragic, but we must not forget the other roads,” mentions Dr. Sylvain Leduc.
He admits, however, that some sections of the motorway are particularly dangerous, notably those where overtaking lanes are shared.
Finally, the director of public health calls for caution for the coming months, while the results show that the majority of serious and fatal accidents occur during the summer period.
