Aviva Canada, a subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country, providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to 2.8 million customers.
On June 27, 2019, as part of its CSR campaign, Aviva Canada launched its new social impact platform – Take Back Our Roads – which is focused on tackling dangerous roads and school zones through community projects, innovation, and strategic partnerships.
CBC Canada is reporting the Take Back our Roads campaign began when Aviva installed yellow flags in yellow canisters, bearing the Aviva name, at nine Toronto intersections the company says were the riskiest, based on its claims data.
However, Toronto city officials called on Aviva to remove the yellow flags, pointing out the company had not asked them for permission to put out the flags, adding there was little evidence that the strategy makes crossing safer.
“Raising awareness and starting a conversation around road safety was our primary intention, and continues to be the objective of the Take Back Our Roads platform,” Aviva said in a statement.
Girl in critical condition after being run over by vehicle in Lawrence Heights cyiXu99Vmk
— CP24 (@CP24) July 24, 2019
A transition to road safety
Aviva says the flags are just one part of a broader road safety platform. The company stated that Take Back Our Roads is more than just an educational campaign. The company sees it as a longer-term investment in innovation and data-driven solutions to implement real environmental changes to reduce the number of people killed or injured on our roads.
The company notes that over 55 percent of its claims were road-related and they paid out over $1.4 billion in car accident claims in 2018. About 156,000 people are injured or killed on Canadian roads every year, and transport-related injuries remain the number one cause of death for Canadian children under the age of 14.
As part of Aviva’s project, they plan on collecting claims data from thousands of collisions and data from local government and police services, to show which intersections and school zones pose the greatest danger in Canada’s major cities.
It is a grand plan and broad in scope. And as Aviva points out, road safety should be a concern for everyone. However, the City of Toronto called on Aviva to take the physical flags down.
“While the City is supportive of community organization endeavors to make its streets safer for children and pedestrians, the City does not have an agreement with any brand or organization to place flags at pedestrian crosswalk intersections,” said Toronto spokesman Brad Ross in an email.
He added that there is no evidence that the flags make a difference, citing Seattle, Washington’s attempt to use the flags. “The Seattle Department of Transportation stopped installing pedestrian flags because of their limited effectiveness and the ongoing maintenance associated with them,” Ross said.
Kyle Ashley is a safe streets advocate, and he says we should be looking at who is actually responsible for traffic-related injuries and deaths – the person behind the wheel of the vehicle.
Many people will agree with Mr. Ashley. It is really quite simple – If you have a driver’s license, then you are supposed to know the rules of the road, including not hitting pedestrians legally in a crosswalk, and plowing into cyclists in bike lanes. It is distracted driving and driving under the influence that is the culprit.
