Several media outlets reported on UBC research that found the number of fatal crashes on some B.C. roads has doubled since the speed limit was increased.
CBC quoted Gord Lovegrove, a professor in sustainable transportation safety at UBC’s Okanagan campus and a co-author of the study. Lovegrove said that even allowing for increase in traffic volume they have seen the numbers go up.
Global reported that B.C. premier John Horgan said he was “shocked” at the findings.
Speed limits were hiked by just 10 per cent in 2014, CTV reported, but crashes have since increased by 20 per cent and fatalities by more than 100 per cent.
Co-author Jeff Brubacher, an associate professor at UBC and road safety researcher, was quoted in the Vancouver Sun. “All of the pro-speed arguments, like the one that people were already driving over the speed limit, have been disproven in this research,” he said.
Similar articles appeared on News 1130, Daily Hive, Castanet and MSN.