Recent immigrants seem to be steadier behind the wheel than long-term residents, researchers have found.
Some people might presume that many new Canadians are unsafe and accident-prone drivers, dealing as they do with unfamiliar roads and customs, along with extreme weather conditions. That wasn't the case in a decade-long study.
Researchers tracked almost one million recent immigrants to Ontario and compared their involvement as drivers in serious road crashes compared to long-time residents of the province, matching each subject in the two groups by age, gender, living location and economic status.
More than 10,000 crashes occurred during the study period. After analyzing hospital and other records, the researchers determined that immigrant drivers — the highest proportions from China and India — were 40 to 50 per cent less likely than long-term residents to be driving a vehicle involved in a bad smash-up.
"These findings suggest that contrary to popular opinion, recent immigrants are less prone to be drivers in a serious crash," said lead investigator Dr. Donald Redelmeier, an internal medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre who is often on call in the Toronto trauma centre's emergency department.
"And perhaps one-third of the total 5,000 hospital admissions for road trauma in Ontario each year might be prevented if long-term residents changed their behaviour to match recent immigrants."
In fact, Redelmeier and colleagues calculated, if long-term residents had the same accident risk profile as recent immigrants, that would have meant about 49 lives saved, 1,000 fewer patients admitted to a critical care unit, a reduction of 2,000 surgeries and 30,000 fewer days in hospital.
"So we're not looking at violations of [driving] etiquette," he said. "We're looking at serious crashes that end you up in the emergency department and hospitalized."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/06/driving-immigrants-crashes.html
Some people might presume that many new Canadians are unsafe and accident-prone drivers, dealing as they do with unfamiliar roads and customs, along with extreme weather conditions. That wasn't the case in a decade-long study.
Researchers tracked almost one million recent immigrants to Ontario and compared their involvement as drivers in serious road crashes compared to long-time residents of the province, matching each subject in the two groups by age, gender, living location and economic status.
More than 10,000 crashes occurred during the study period. After analyzing hospital and other records, the researchers determined that immigrant drivers — the highest proportions from China and India — were 40 to 50 per cent less likely than long-term residents to be driving a vehicle involved in a bad smash-up.
"These findings suggest that contrary to popular opinion, recent immigrants are less prone to be drivers in a serious crash," said lead investigator Dr. Donald Redelmeier, an internal medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre who is often on call in the Toronto trauma centre's emergency department.
"And perhaps one-third of the total 5,000 hospital admissions for road trauma in Ontario each year might be prevented if long-term residents changed their behaviour to match recent immigrants."
In fact, Redelmeier and colleagues calculated, if long-term residents had the same accident risk profile as recent immigrants, that would have meant about 49 lives saved, 1,000 fewer patients admitted to a critical care unit, a reduction of 2,000 surgeries and 30,000 fewer days in hospital.
"So we're not looking at violations of [driving] etiquette," he said. "We're looking at serious crashes that end you up in the emergency department and hospitalized."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/06/driving-immigrants-crashes.html
