OTTAWA — Transport Canada has changed the way it classifies road fatalities as a result of motor vehicle crashes.

Canadian officials felt that differences in how each jurisdiction defines a roadway fatality could result in jurisdictional or international data being incomparable, thereby placing certain provinces at a statistical disadvantage with other OECD member countries.

The National Data Collision Task Force, led by Aline Chouinard of Transport Canada’s Road Safety Directorate, developed a new definition which include only fatalities that are preventable through road safety and exclude many of the "seemingly endless" variables that could affect the recording of a fatality, such as homicides and suicides, medical conditions of drivers, and acts of God.

"Any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an unintentional injury incurred in a crash involving at least one motor vehicle, in motion, on a public road, as defined in relevant legislation in each jurisdiction," sums up the new definition.

Otherwise, officials explained, performance measures for Canadian road safety would be skewed.