In This Issue

An Examination of the National Road-Safety Programs in the Ten World's Leading Countries

  

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 marked the 5th annual National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims in Canada. The commemoration of this day, and the associated public awareness campaign, were developed by the Global Road Safety Committee in order to bring attention to the impact of vehicle crashes on families and communities. The campaign materials were created by a communication and advertising company and include a website and posters. In 2012, many jurisdictions and Associates participated in the awareness day by issuing press releases and organizing events. Copies of these can be found on the National Day of Remembrance web site. Members and Associates are encouraged to link the NDR website to their own websites.

  In its third year of the campaign, more and more jurisdictions and organizations are jumping on board to join and promote the Leave the Phone Alone Campaign. Developed by the Global Road Safety Committee and managed by CCMTA Communications, the website hosts numerous campaign materials that can be downloaded to create your own campaigns. Click here for campaign materials.

  

CCMTA has initiated the use of an assessment tool for adding new proven and promising initiatives into the strategy framework and is currently developing national performance measures that will be useful in monitoring and evaluating progress during the term of the RSS. Nineteen new proven and promising initiatives / countermeasures were added to the RSS website

inventory to bring the total to one hundred and thirty-nine. Since last May 2012, a number of new proven and promising motorcycle and pedestrian initiatives have been accepted by the Board for inclusion into the RSS 2015 inventory. The RRS 2015 website has had 13,919 views over the past year with 79 % being new visitors.

 

 

CCMTA's Vulnerable Road Users Expert Working Group (EWG) on Motorcycle Safety worked diligently to complete a report addressing contemporary motorcycle issues and trends. The report suggests a number of actions that support the holistic nature of RSS 2015 and nineteen of these actions have been adopted into the RSS 2015 inventory of proven and promising initiatives. The report is available on the RSS 2015 website.

 

Pedestrian Countermeasures  

The Vulnerable Road User Expert Working Group on Pedestrian Safety are in the final stages of editing its report entitled "Countermeasures to Improve Pedestrian Safety in Canada". Intended as a guide for government stakeholders, this report also supports the RSS 2015. The report addresses the role of pedestrians, drivers, roadway design, and improving the safety of vehicles for pedestrian protection.   Approximately 91 potential initiatives / countermeasures have been identified from the report and 33 have been recently been accepted by the CCMTA Board for inclusion into the RSS 2015.  The remaining initiatives are expect to be assessed in the coming months.  

    

In May, 2012, CCMTA announced the appointment of Methusalah Kunuk as Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Kunuk was born and raised in the small community of Igloolik 700 miles north of Iqaluit. He has held management positions in both levels of governments (Territorial and Municipal) since 1974, and was the Regional Assistant Superintendent of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) and Regional Superintendent of Transportation before Nunavut was established. Mr. Kunuk has been Assistant Deputy Minister of Transportation for both the Department of Community Government and Transportation and the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, currently holding the appointment of Assistant Deputy Minister of the Transportation Branch.

   

Invitation to CCMTA's 2013 Annual Meeting - May 5-8, Iqaluit, NU

    

Chris O'Connell, New member on CCMTA's Board of Directors

A workshop on alcohol impaired driving is being organized by CCMTA for March 26-27 in Ottawa. Invited participants will include members of CCMTA's RSRP Committee,the Strategy to Reduce Impaired Driving (STRID) Task Force and other stakeholders representing a variety of disciplines and organizations. This workshop will build on the momentum achieved at the previous successful workshop on Drinking and Driving held in October 2000. Many of the highlighted strategies and initiatives from STRID 2010 have been successfully implemented in the jurisdictions in the intervening years. Building on this legacy, the 2013 workshop, Alcohol Impaired Driving: Priorities for the FUture, will focus on assessing promising and proven alcohol-related initiatives currently in the RSS 2015 and work to identify any new best practices or initiatives in the field.

CCMTA is pleased to announce the completion of the new "Determining Driver Fitness in Canada, Part 1: A Model for the Administration of Driver Fitness Programs and Part 2: CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers". This nationally recognized resource was developed through the hard work and diligence of the CCMTA Driver Fitness Overview Group (DFOG) and will be available in early 2013.

 

The document utilizes an approach that is focused on a medical fitness to drive model. This model is built on an evidence based medical standard that takes into account risk, compensation, accommodation, functional focus and assessment methodology. Once published the new document will replace CCMTA's existing medical standard. Medical standards for both commercial and passenger vehicle drivers are developed by CCMTA at the national level and then implemented by individual jurisdictions.

 The CDLA (Canadian Driver Licence Agreement) enhances the CDLC (Canadian Driver Licence Compact) established in the early 1990's which currently allows for the exchange of driver licences and conviction information between Canadian jurisdictions and assists drivers when they relocate from one jurisdiction to another. Building off the CLDC foundation, the CDLA focuses on additional high profile areas: identity, security and expanded driver offences.

 

Work on the CDLA has progressed over the last several years with substantive work accomplished by jurisdictions in preparing for implementation. Through this process and review of the proposed CDLA, several jurisdictions have identified elements that would require either exemptions to the agreement or in some cases an inability to operationalize a condition.

 

As a result, a Board review, lead by Carolyn Burggraaf, with input from D&V members is taking place to assess the options for the CDLA to ensure the best agreement is in place to meet jurisdictions requirements.

A relatively recent new tool used by jurisdictions in the fight against drinking and driving has been the alcohol ignition interlock device. This mechanism, similar to a breathalyzer, is installed in a motor vehicle's dashboard and requires the driver to exhale into the device and pass the breathalyzer test before the vehicle will start.

 

An administrative challenge jurisdictions face currently is how to manage drivers' with installed interlocks that relocate from one province or territory to another. Under existing legislation, some jurisdictions cannot allow a driver to participate in its interlock program until the sanctions in the originating jurisdiction are lifted. To address these issues an Alcohol Interlock Reciprocity Matrix of provincial/territorial procedures was developed in 2011 to provide suitable information for managing drivers on a one on one basis between two jurisdictions.

 

With the increased use of interlocks in jurisdictions and the related increased volume of clients the administrative challenges have become more of a priority issue that requires resolution. A decision was made in November 2012, for D&V to revisit the issue and look at the best available options to aid in reducing this administrative concern.

Further to a second round of jurisdictional and industry consultation on the proposed technical, performance-based standard for Electronic On-Board Recorder Use, project consultant FPInnovations is gearing up for a final analysis of the feedback received and anticipate completion of the final draft this spring. While extensive, a large part of the feedback from regulated stakeholders and manufacturers speaks to clarification and interpretation issues, and a one-day meeting is being planned to address the submitted concerns and complete this stage of the work.

 

Once the new draft standard is completed, a final review of costs and benefits will be done and submitted for consideration by Ministers and, if approved, an implementation plan put in place. This decision is not expected until there is a better sense of the U.S. rule's regulatory provisions and timing of implementation to ensure Canadian compatibility. This will aid in avoiding creating unintended barriers and imposing additional costs on Canadian carriers and EOBR manufacturers. FMCSA has indicated swift progress on an industry-wide electronic logging mandate and a ruling is expected this year.

Following jurisdictional and stakeholder consultations on the proposed amendments to NSC Standard 10 on Cargo Securement over the course of the summer and fall, four of the original six proposed amendments tabled in May 2012 have now been approved by the CRA Committee and CCMTA Board. The changes build on work conducted jointly with FMCSA to update the North American Model Regulation and additionally address concerns and recommendations raised as part of the Cargo Securement Public Forum:

• the definition of light vehicles (the standard's original wording unintentionally caused small equipment and special purpose vehicles [e.g. lawnmowers, golf carts] to be considered 'light vehicles', with unnecessary consequences for loading and securement when being transported)
• a new requirement for resistance markings on friction mats(eliminates the default working load limit for unmarked friction mats, requiring them to be marked by the manufacturer with their maximum friction resistance)
• new requirements for rows of metal coils with eyes crosswise (addresses an oversight in the standard, which omitted the requirement)
• the securement of intermodal containers (addresses a conflict discovered between regulatory specification and current designs of integral locking devices on intermodal containers).
 

The amendments will be tabled with the Council of Ministers through a ballot process in the near term, with implementation as per each jurisdiction's legislative window.

 

The other two proposed amendments on flattened or crushed vehicles and the transportation of heavy vehicles as cargo were not approved pending further technical work.

Update of National Safety Code Standard 11 on Periodic Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspections is now drawing to a close. The project group, under the leadership of Nova Scotia's Mike Balsom and with representation from all jurisdictions as well as a number of technical experts from industry, was tasked with updating the standard to ensure it reflects present manufacturing standards and evolving vehicle technology.

 

The work was intense and extensive, and following a series of three meetings and several conference calls over the last seven months the group has now produced a substantive overhaul of the inspection requirements. What remains is the resolution of a limited number of outstanding issues, as well as final edits and language and style consistency issues. Work is ongoing and the final report -and updated requirements- will be tabled in May.

 

The PMVI Standard is the result of a 1991 Ministerial Memorandum of Understanding designed to ensure interprovincial consistency of periodic commercial motor vehicle inspection programs across Canada. It calls for mandatory annual inspections of trucks, tractors and trailers and semi-annual inspections of buses. The inspections are conducted at government-licensed facilities, with compliance verified at roadside through an inspection decal affixed to the equipment. The standard is published by CCMTA in a manual entitled Periodic Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspections.

In the fall of 2012, the SAAQ launched a second awareness campaign on distraction, specifically on texting at the wheel. It ran a new message on major French-speaking television networks in Québec and aired a message on English-speaking radio stations in Montéal. The campaign also included an Internet component and the introduction of the "Focus Mode" mobile application for Android smart phones. For more information and the instructions on how to download the free application click here.

Transport Canada has a motor vehicle test centre in Blainville, Quebec, which is located just north of Montreal. The centre is a government owned, contractor operated centre and is operated by PMG Technologies. The test centre has many capabilities including a high speed parabolic track, off-road testing areas and specialized sections of road where it can "rain" on demand. Other tests include testing of safety systems such as pulling seat belt anchors from vehicles and a cold room for testing cars and trucks at low temperatures, including window defrosting performance.

 

The Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards set out specific mandatory performance tests related to new vehicles and the test centre is capable of testing vehicles to these standards. In addition, the centre is also set up to conduct crash tests between a vehicle and stationary object and vehicle to vehicle crashes at various angles, with great precision. The centre was recently named the Crash Test Facility of the year 2012 by the UKIP Publishing House and was highlighted in a recent Daily Planet TV program on the Discovery Network. Click here to watch.  The test centre clips starts at 1:40 minutes of the show.

 

Director of Communications

France Daviault ext. 248

Linda Levesque ext. 269