New ICBC road safety speakers reaching out to Island students ahead of grad season

April 11, 2019

Two new ICBC road safety speakers are now travelling across Vancouver Island sharing their personal stories with high school students about risky driving and the importance of making smart decisions.

Every year on Vancouver Island, three youth are killed and 1,200 are injured in 3,800 crashes.*

Nathan Cook is a paramedic whose young daughter and her best friend were killed in a crash in 2010. They were grade nine students in a car being driven by a friend who had been drinking and doing drugs. Nathan shares the powerful reality of how a poor decision can have devastating effects for families, friends and communities.

Steve Serbic shares his experiences as a first responder to numerous vehicle crashes, including teen fatalities. He shares a powerful story about a distracted driver who crashed into a fire truck, his experience as a firefighter in New York shortly after 9/11, and the results of mixing drugs and driving at a music festival. Steve is now Assistant Chief in Esquimalt.

The latest figures show that vehicle crashes represent the greatest number of unintentional deaths for youth (age 15 to 18).**

ICBC is committed to supporting youth in developing strong decision-making skills on the road to help prevent crashes and save lives. Over the past two decades, ICBC's road safety speakers have been sharing their stories with approximately 50,000 B.C. high school students every year.

Media are invited to these upcoming presentations  on Vancouver Island.

Please contact ICBC road safety coordinators, Caroline Robinson at 250-390-5505 or Colleen Woodger at 250-414-7843 to confirm events 24 hours prior to attending, as dates and times are subject to change. Please check in at the school upon arriving for a presentation.

Facts:*

• Contributing factors for youth injury crashes involve distracted driving (33 percent), speed (17 percent) and impaired driving (six percent).

• Contributing factors for youth fatal crashes involve speed (34 percent), distracted driving (26 percent) and impaired driving (17 percent).

• Young male drivers are involved in crashes almost three times more often than young female drivers, particularly when speed or impairment is involved.

• Twenty-three percent of speeding drivers involved in crashes, resulting in injury or death, were between the ages of 16 and 21 years.

*Police-reported data based on the five-year average from 2013 to 2017. Youth are defined as age 16 to 21.

**Based on BC Coroner data from 2016.

Media contact:

Lindsay Wilkins
604-982-4759