Canadian Study Finds Winter Tyre Users in Fewer Crashes

A 2009 government study of winter traffic accidents in Prince Edward Island found that only six per cent of the involved vehicles was fitted with winter tyres. But that apparently isn’t enough for the province’s transportation minister, who called the study “inconclusive” and says there is no reason to mandate winter tyre use as Quebec did in 2008.

PEI transport minister Ron MacKinley told CBC News that his department has been recommending Islanders put winter tyres on their cars, but he’s not convinced the province should make them mandatory. Last winter’s study had PEI police record tire details for some 1,500 accidents between Nov. 1, 2008 and Apr. 20, 2009. In 92 cases – or six per cent of the events – winter tyres were used by at least one of the vehicles. The study, however, did not note weather or traffic conditions or other causal details.

“It’s not what you’d call a scientific study, but it does give us some data to go on,” MacKinley told the CBC.

The transport department’s statistics on winter tyre usage in the region, the CBC noted, is based upon a survey of car parks carried out several years ago. This inspection showed 60 per cent of vehicles to be equipped with winter tyres, yet MacKinley believes this proportion has since risen and he has requested another car park survey be taken this year.