Edmonton’s traffic safety conference another effort to eliminate fatal collisions

Experts on traffic safety are gathering in Edmonton this week to share ideas on reducing collisions.

Alberta’s capital is hosting the 10th annual International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety, which has attracted stakeholders from around the world.

“They’re coming here to showcase some of the work that they’re doing, that’s leading and best practice on how they’re able to reduce their injuries and fatalities in their countries,” conference co-chair Shewkar Ibrahim said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They're coming here to showcase some of the work that they're doing, that's leading and best practice on how they're able to reduce their injuries and fatalities in their countries," conference co-chair Shewkar Ibrahim said.

“As well, we have some local speakers from Edmonton who are showcasing some of the great work that we are doing here in Edmonton to achieve Vision Zero.”

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READ MORE: City says Edmonton traffic safety improving, but a long road ahead

Ibrahim said the conference is critical in Edmonton’s long-term goal of completely eliminating fatalities and serious collisions on city streets. This year’s focus is on enforcement, education and engineering.

“We need partners from every area in traffic safety, whether it’s policing, engineering, injury prevention to come together to be able to achieve Vision Zero, which is a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We need partners from every area in traffic safety, whether it's policing, engineering, injury prevention to come together to be able to achieve Vision Zero, which is a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries."

READ MORE: Edmonton sees rise in fatal collisions but number of pedestrian and bike crashes drop

Office of Traffic Safety statistics showed the number of fatal collisions in Edmonton increased 23.8 per cent from 2016 to 2017. The report, entitled Motor Vehicle Collisions 2017, showed there were 21 fatal crashes in 2016 compared to 26 last year.

“The most important thing is to make sure that we have specific programs with specific goals that we can evaluate to determine whether it’s actually efficient and successful in reducing the collisions,” Ibrahim said.

The conference started Monday and runs until Thursday.