Saskatchewan Government Insurance recently came out with its annual report into the safety of Saskatchewan’s highways.
It shows that the number of people who were killed or injured on Saskatchewan roads in 2018 was down considerably from the 10-year average, with 129 fatalities and 4,220 injuries. This is very good news, and even more impressive when you consider that the 2018 numbers include the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy, in which 16 people were killed in one of the most tragic incidents in this province’s history.
Most of the collisions involved one of the big 4: impaired driving, speeding, distracted driving or failure to properly use seat belts. That should not be a surprise, either. Incidents like those will dominate highway collision numbers in Saskatchewan and any other province.
But the fact that these numbers are down is an encouraging sign.
SGI deserves credit for the work it has done in the past few years to promote safety on this province’s highways. We’ve seen the campaigns that target such issues as impaired driving and distracted driving.
Some of them place a little too much emphasis on emotion, with the music in the background, but at the same time, in many cases, a campaign that plays to our emotions is likely going to be more effective than one that appeals to our sense of logic.
It’s also good that legislation has been introduced that takes a tougher stance on impaired driving, whether it be by drug or alcohol, that distracted driving laws continue to get tougher, and that fines have been increased for those who insist on driving at a very unsafe rate of speed.
Ultimately, though, it’s up to all of us to keep our roads and highways safe. SGI can come out with campaigns, and we can have all of the tough punishments we want for unsafe driving.
Without action by motorists, our roads will never be safer.
And frankly, we should be thinking about safety when on the roads at all times. We should be looking for a safe ride home after a night out because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the punishment that exists for impaired driving, or because our vehicle could be impounded, or because more and more police agencies are releasing the names of impaired drivers to the media.
We should drive the speed limit – and not dangerously slow or fast – because we are cognizant of the other people on the road, and not because of the cost of a speeding ticket.
We should avoid distractions while driving because we know that when we take our eyes off the road to look at a text, even for a few seconds, it’s a dangerous action.
And we should buckle our seat belts because we’ve known for decades that seatbelts save lives.
In much the same way that a community is only as safe as its citizens feel, our roads are only truly safe when people feel safe on them. You always have to take cautions, and take that extra look when the light turns green to make sure that somebody isn’t running a red light, or watch the grid roads when travelling down a highway to ensure that someone didn’t ignore a stop sign. (Although you still won’t have much of a chance to stop when approaching that grid road).
But if we don’t feel safe travelling down the highway because we’re afraid someone might cross the centre line at the wrong time, or an approaching motorist might try a pass at the wrong time, how safe are we?
If we don’t feel safe crossing the street at a marked intersection because motorists don’t yield the right of way, how safe are we?
And if we don’t feel safe driving at night because we’re concerned about impaired drivers, how safe are we?
There’s a lot that goes into creating safe roads for everyone. Yes, the Big 4 mentioned earlier have to be remembered. But there are a lot of collisions caused by reasons other than the Big 4.
So let’s all aim to be just a little safer, and to make Saskatchewan the safest province to travel in the country.
