Winter Tires Mandatory in Quebec

Whoa! Just heard word that the province of Quebec has made it mandatory for cars to have winter tires between November – April.

That is quite the ruling. Does residents get a tax break from that? Will the tire shops jack up their prices because it is now mandatory?

Here’s an interesting statistic from this Globe and Mail article.

“Currently, 90 per cent of Quebec drivers switch to winter tires. But Minister of Transportation Julie Boulet wanted to make snow tires compulsory, even though buying them will represent an additional cost for some owners.”

That’s quite a high percentage. I never realized it could be that high. So then I’m wondering, why the heck are they making it mandatory if 90% of the population does so anyhow?

Here’s another stat worthy of discussion:
“Last year, 717 people died as a result of accidents on the province’s roads.”

Questions (from my critical thinking mind):
– Of those 717, how many were snow-on-the-road related accidents?
– How many of those snow-on-the-road related accidents involved vehicles without snow tires?

I would think that if 90% of the population has snow tires, chances are, even if the 717 were involved in snow-on-the-road accidents, some of the cars had snow tires.

What I’m getting at is that I don’t think the statistics help the case for a mandatory snow tire policy. Now, if they said it was voluntary but you got a rebate from the Quebec government, maybe the number would creep up past the 90% mark. But 90% is a heck of a lot and in many circles is deemed a good average.

I don’t even know if 717 people dying due to provincial road accidents is higher compared to other provinces or if it’s in line with the average. I stand by my original question as to how many of these deaths are winter-tire related.

Maybe I’m just commenting because I don’t feel I need snow tires, but people who buy them anyhow are ADAMANT that they are needed and call me foolish for not doing so.

On a related note (I’m sure I’ll get flack for this comment), I wonder how many accidents are caused because people think if they have snow tires, they can go about their merry day and drive like it’s the summer in the middle of the winter? I’m sure there are a few.

Anyhow, in the end, considering there’s only 10% of the population in Quebec that don’t buy winter tires, it’s a small percentage who will have their say but will get drowned out by the all the others who buy winter tires anyhow. I’m going to mark in my calendar to take a look at the province wide road deaths a year from after the ruling is implemented.

Another interesting point was the banning of hand held cellular phones while driving which is going to go into effect on January 1. I guess I agree with it…I’ve noticed some drivers in the past who are merging into my lane when they shouldn’t and I wonder why they are doing that and then I notice they are on their cellphone. However, I’ve been there and done it, and don’t feel that it hinders my driving but that may be my ignorance speaking and it would be interesting to take a driving test while talking on a cellular phone to see how reaction time is diminished. In the end, I don’t think it’s a BAD idea and it doesn’t cost anyone money to not talk on phone while driving. Quick! Sell some hands free sets in Quebec for the Christmas season!

***update*** So our friend pollcrazy left this comment:
” What about the insurance industry not covering your claim because you didn’t have snow tires on?”. This intrigued me as I had never heard of this happening but heck, you never know with insurance companies. So I decided to go straight to the source and emailed my insurance supervisor and she said that it simply wasn’t true. Now in pollcrazy’s defense, perhaps his insurance company has a different clause, or perhaps he has friends that this has happened to or has seen investigative reports on this type of thing. Heck, we’ve all heard horror stories about insurance companies not processing your claims. At the very least, I have received a Christmas present from pollcrazy in the fact that I now have an email from my insurance company saying not having snow tires won’t affect my claim if something does happen. Yay!