New Canadians no cause for concern on the road
Posted Jul 6, 2011 04:23:17 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some people might presume many new Canadians are unsafe drivers.
However, researchers say recent immigrants actually seem to be steadier behind the wheel than long-term residents.
Researchers tracked nearly a million recent immigrants in Ontario and compared their involvement in serious crashes with that of long-time residents
After analyzing hospital and other records, they found immigrant drivers were 40 to 50 per cent less likely than long-term residents to in a bad crash.
The lead researcher is Dr. Donad Redelmeier at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.
He says it’s possible that a third of hospital admissions for road trauma in Ontario could be avoided if long-term residents drove like recent immigrants.
The decade-long study looked at more than 10 thousand crashes and the details are published in the Journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.
