The influence of motor vehicle legislation on injury claim incidence

BACKGROUND: Although there have been numerous strategies to prevent motor vehicle collisions and their subsequent injuries, few have been effective in preventing motor vehicle injury claims. In this paper, we examine the role of legislation and compensation system in altering injury claim incidence. METHODS: The population base for our natural experiment was all Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and Quebec residents who submitted personal injury claims to their respective motor vehicle insurance provider from 1990 to 1999. The provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba switched from Tort to pure No-Fault insurance on January 1, 1995 and on March 1, 1994 respectively. British Columbia maintained tort insurance and Quebec maintained pure no-fault insurance throughout the entire 10-year period. RESULTS: The conversion from tort insurance to pure no-fault motor vehicle insurance resulted in a five-year 31% (RR = 0.69; 95% CI 0.68-0.70) reduction in total injury claims per 100,000 residents in Saskatchewan and a five-year 43% (RR = 0.57; 95% CI 0.56-0.58) reduction in Manitoba. At the same time, the province of British Columbia retained tort insurance and had a five-year 5% reduction (RR = 0.95; 95% CI 0.94-0.99). Quebec, which retained pure no-fault throughout the entire 10-year period, had less than one third of the injury claims per 100,000 residents than the tort province of British Columbia. INTERPRETATION: The conversion from tort to pure no-fault legislation has a large influence in reducing motor vehicle injury claim incidence in Canada. Legislative system and injury compensation scheme have an observable impact on injury claim incidence and can therefore have significant impact on the health care system.