A recent Alberta government report states that traffic injuries and fatalities last year were the lowest since 1995.

According to the Alberta government traffic fatalities decreased 10.5 per cent from 2007 to 2008, and traffic injuries from the same time period were down 10.3 per cent.

Luke Ouellette, Minister of Transportation of Alberta, said that safe driving has been the key to saving lives.

“Our traffic and safety partners are working well together to do what we can to help save lives on Alberta’s roads, but drivers play a key role in continuing to bring these numbers down,” he said.

Despite several serious vehicle accidents in Jasper National Park in the last month, Jasper RCMP Sgt. Dave Maludzinski agreed that numbers are down.

“I think it’s true. I’ve been here for five years, and we get numerous, fatalities on the highway, not just us, but down in the Moose Lake area – I know that’s BC and has nothing to do with Alberta – but I don’t hear of as near as many accidents down there either. It could be that we’ve got less people on the road, less people driving,” he said.

The report says that driver error continues to be a contributing factor to 90 per cent of traffic collisions, which they say is a persistent statistic, which indicates that changing driver attitudes continues to be a major challenge.

The most frequent driver actions causing collisions were following too closely, running off the road and making left turns across the path of oncoming vehicles.

22.5 per cent of drivers involved in fatal collisions had consumed alcohol prior to the crash, and 50 per cent of pedestrians involved in fatal collisions had consumed alcohol.

Casualty rates were highest among people between the ages of 15 and 24, and male drivers aged 18 and 19 had the highest casualty collision rate.

Last year 410 people were killed in vehicle collisions in Alberta, and 22,015 were injured.