Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of accidental death for people under 24 years old in Nova Scotia, according to a new government report.
The report looked at child and young adult deaths from 2009 to 2023. It did not include medical deaths caused by things like cancer or disease. The report focused on four categories of deadly accidents caused by motor vehicles, drugs, fires, and drowning. It also considered death by suicide, homicide, undetermined causes and climate disasters.
Chief Health Officer Dr. Robert Strang says a large portion of the motor vehicle deaths were caused by ATV accidents.
“If there’s one thing that stands out, it is the predominance of the impact of motor vehicle crashes, and that does include ATVs, that are a large proportion of the accidental deaths and really drive a lot of this. And those impacts and those deaths are very much preventable, and we need to collectively do better in terms of road and off road safety,” said Strang.
From 2009 to 2023, between 6 and 23 people died each year, for a mean of 15. That makes 226 motor vehicle deaths in total over the 14-year period.
About 77 per cent were male, and about 71 per cent of the deaths were rural residents.
The report does not say exactly how many deaths were related to ATV crashes compared to other motor vehicles.
Drug toxicity made up 24 per cent of accidental deaths, drowning 8 per cent, fire/burns 6 per cent and other causes 6 per cent.
The report also points out that eight people between 15 and 24 years old were swimming or wading in water when they drowned.
But five of those deaths were new Canadians or international students. That accounts for 62 per cent of the accidental drownings in that age group.
Suicides represented between 11 and 21 deaths yearly.
The goal of the report was to show trends in child and young adult deaths and then to make recommendations to help avoid those.
