Also things like road design are a factor. Round-abouts are considered safer to 4-ways stops/etc. There seems to be generally less 'kit' on the average North American road e.g. barriers, markings, lighting etc.

I'm surprised the stats aren't worse actually, although Europe is better, it doesn't seem to be massively so...

Roundabouts and snow ploughs don't really mix.

The city of Gatineau has recently put up some lethal kit. A fairly busy road between the shopping mall and a school now has a fence down the middle to stop kids running across the road. Fine, except that drivers turning left into the mall carpark simply cannot see if anything is coming the other way. It is only a matter of time.........

The majority of people in Canada live near civilisation.

In uk bad drivers tend to wear a hat or or put a tartan blanket on the rear parcel shelf maybe its so you can give them a wide birth

Hat wearing is a good indicator here too. Also, "Baby on Board" signs, chrome fish, Buick/Caddy, grey or beige Toyota or Honda, rhinestone encrusted tissue box holder on rear parcel shelf, beads dangling from mirror, license plates referencing ice hockey teams, veteran's plates.

So what, not everyone does, thats the point.

I'm just saying, if you hit a moose on a deserted stretch of the transcanada highway in the back of beyond, then the remoteness itself is going to play a part in your chances of a good outcome. Something like that happening in the UK or Germany seems less likely to me, and has little to do with how good or bad a driver you are. Shit happens, and seems to happen more often in the winter. That could partly explains why there are more deaths per km?

20Million drivers perhaps, so even 50 or 100 deaths a year will skew the stats. People die all the time on Hwy 7 north of here, and I would guess that the same sorts of accident on the 401 would be much more survivable because the EMT response and access to an emergency department would be a lot faster.

Factor in the fact that you are going to be driving longer distances here to get from one civilised bit to another and it partly explains why there are more deaths per capita too. Its not necessarily all to do with driver standards.

Some more stats to madden you

In Canada 33.8% of motor vehicle deaths were associated with alcohol use
38% were not wearing seat belts
Fatal Urban collisions 954 Personal injury collisions Urban 102,134
Fatal Rural collisions 1,625 Rural 40,909

This chart show the breakdown of injuries etc by province

That shows that Ontario has a similar death rate to the UK. The highest rate is the Yukon which fits with your belief. NB seems very bad.

UK stats
16 per cent of all road deaths linked to alcohol

In 2005, over
2,000 people were killed on rural roads
1,000 on urban roads.
serious and slight injury collisions
164,298 on urban roads
105,490 on rural roads.

number of cars in Canada 12,650,000
number of cars in the UK 26,208,000

Lord knows what possessed me to look up all this, avoiding housework probably.

I still think that driving here is worse. More make it up as you go along style.

LOL

I think in part of the perception of canadian drivers on this website stems from learning in the the UK where you learn to look ahead and anticipate because driving there seems more akin to warfare, and its survival of the fittest to some extent (look ahead to spot the speed cameras perhaps). The fact that most people learn to drive stick out of necessity probably helps too in drivers being aware in order to downshift to anticipate changing situations.

Personally I find driving here a lot more relaxing than in the UK, here you just get up to speed and engage cruise control. My brother in Surrey has his (wifes) BMW for three years before he got the oportinity to engage it cos its all so stop start!

Lets not forget the "Britains Worst Driver" was the precursor to the "Canadas worst driver" show... there are plenty of crap UK drivers out there too..some of them probably out there on Canadas streets! What is that made up stat, 90% of drivers think themselves above average?

Hmmm freeform driving...never thought of it that way before.

I think it explains a lot.

Fair enough. Snow ploughs here seem to manage them fine.

I was under the impression that snow ploughs in the UK had trouble managing snow.

NYCC do fairly well. You can get some pretty deep snow across the North York moors (across which I used to commute for a few years) and do a reasonable job on the A roads.

I think a few county councils down south didn't have a enough grit and salt reserves a few years back and were caught short. Southern softies.

..and large pairs of testicles hanging from the back of the truck!

There is snow here this morning, not a lot of snow, perhaps 4".

There was snow last winter too, that's why they call it the snowbelt. The entire population seems to have been replaced by new immigrants unfamiliar with the stuff. For God's sake, if the best you can do in snow is to drive at the speed limit please stay in bed and let people who have places to go get on with getting there. If you're going to meander along at 50mph and still crash into the ditch why not do it in your own driveway so as to save public inconvenience?

There were umpteen cars and trucks in ditches this morning. That, and the pathetic pace of the yokels in their pick ups caused me a tedious journey enlivened only by overtaking in blowing snow having to trust that any oncoming vehicle would have the lights on. That's not a given by any stretch.

Ballix. There's months of this to come.