A new study from Western University has found tougher penalties for extreme speeding and aggressive driving in Ontario have reduced injuries and fatalities among young male drivers.
According to the study, there have been 700 fewer injuries and fatalities each year reported among 16-24 year olds since the Street Racers, Stunt, and Aggressive Drivers Legislation (Bill 203) was introduced in 2007.
That works out to about 58 fewer speed-related injuries and deaths among young men each month.
The study, led by Dr. Evelyn Vingilis, a professor at Western's Schuclich School of Medicine and Dentistry, also found the legislation is acting as a deterrent to risky driving behaviour.
"What we found was a substantial reduction in the number of convictions for extreme speeding for males, and no change for females because they were pretty low anyway. And importantly, we found a significant decrease in the number of motor vehicle casualties of males 16 to 24 - quite a significant reduction," Vingilis said in a statement.
The research, done in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), looked at data from Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2011, comparing the numbers before and after the law coming into effect on Sept. 30, 2007.
From the time the new law came into force to the end of 2011, more than 24,000 drivers' licences were suspended for violating the new street racing legislation - nearly 8,500 of them in the first year alone.
The study results on casualties have been published in Accident Analysis & Prevention and the study on convictions has been published in Traffic Injury Prevention.
