Is this your first time here? What this site is about

by Cindy Smith
Editor and Founder

Educationforthedrivingmasses.com is a website dedicated to informing Canadians about traffic incidents across the country and providing tips and awareness to prevent future crashes. We also provide fatality tracking, a grim task that shows Canadians the weekly road and off-road toll. These statistics are shown in the charts on the right hand side and further statistics are available in our 2010 report called The Road Toll In Perspective.

This is not a website about blame. This is a website that looks for answers. Our focus is to educate Canadians about the dangers of driving and help all drivers and operators realize we are all susceptible to a collision either because of the poor driving skills and negligence of other drivers, or our own bad decisions.

We aim to make drivers aware there are several factors that cause crashes and what they can do to avoid them such as animals darting across the roadway, falling asleep at the wheel, steering out of a skid on black ice, passing safely, towing properly, staying sober and many more. See Education for the driving masses: Tips

Educationforthedrivingmasses.com is the only educational, news and resource website about transportation in Canada. The website also offers an extensive news archive about traffic and recreational incidents relying heavily on information collected from a vast network of police agencies and media internet feeds.

Education for the Driving Masses (EFTDM) is a not-for-profit organization committed to educating the Canadian motoring public about the need and requirements for driving and/or operating a motor/recreational vehicle with respect, due care and attention, within the law and with skill.

EFTDM advocates for advanced driver's training that includes both collision avoidance and winter defensive driving skills. One of our missions is to make driver's training a mandatory requirement in each province and territory by 2020.


OUR MANDATE
The website was launched in July 2007 by Cindy J. Smith. The website's mandate is dedicated in memory of David Virgoe; a 2010 recipient of the Governor General of Canada's award of bravery for a valiant act he made in June 2007 when he saved hundreds of other drivers' lives by sacrificing his own life after his truck was sent careening out of control on a major Ontario highway after a speeding driver racing two friends collided with Virgoe's transport truck.

In March of 2009 we launched The Drunk Driving Masses. The site's mandate is to detail for Canadians how many people are charged with impaired on a daily basis as there are many Canadians who disbelieve impaired driving is a very real social problem in this country. Impaired driving continues to be the leading criminal cause of death year after year in Canada. More Canadians die at the hands of a drunk driver than by gun or any other act of violent crime.

Driving impaired (by alcohol, drugs or fatigue) is a very real problem in Canada, one that can affect anyone of us at any time. What happened to families who have experienced loss or injury because of drunk driving can happen to you.

Driving after drinking is not a mistake. It's time for people to stop referring to this criminal act as a lapse in judgment or a bad decision.

Driving impaired is a crime.


WHY WE DO IT
I often get asked, mostly by journalists who stumble across the site, why we pull in and post national media coverage of traffic fatalities. This is puzzling to them and also to readers because I, and my co-editor Peter, both live in Ontario. Peter is the editor of our drunk driving website.

So why bother?

The answer is very simple and to quote Peter, it's one thing to read about the fatal crash that happened in your local town or city, offer up a "tsk, tsk" and move on with your day, but to read this website and learn about fatal crashes happening daily in every province quick