Many of our past articles have dealt with motor vehicle accident (MVA) trends and provincial legislative changes affecting automobile insurance. Personal injury lawyers need to be aware of these changes.

In January 2022, in a move to address the backlog of drivers waiting to be tested due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario introduced significant alterations to its G road test, removing several elements from the test that were deemed duplicative. These changes were made without formal safety evaluations or cabinet approval.

Emergency stops, three-point turns, parallel parking, and driving in residential areas were removed. Many other test elements were halved: right and left turns, stop and through intersections, curves, and driving in business sections.

In addition, approximately 54,000 drivers from other countries can bypass the G2 road test if they have a license from their home country.

In June 2022, six months after implementing the reduced G road test, a Ministry of Transportation evaluation revealed a 30% increase in the at-fault collision rate among novice drivers who passed the reduced test.

In December 2023, the Auditor General of Ontario conducted a formal audit of the changes, stating that the decision to streamline the G road test changes was made without proper review and that it may have adversely impacted road safety. Among the findings:

  • Novice drivers from urban areas who took road tests at rural or suburban test centres had collision rates 16% to 27% higher than other novice drivers.
  • Less-experienced drivers from countries without driver’s licence exchange agreements with Ontario had a significantly higher collision rate (6.31%) compared to the average rate of newly licensed G-class drivers (3.60%).
  • Drivers who shortened their G1 supervised driving period were involved in more collisions.

In January 2024, two years after the test changes were enacted, MyChoice, a car insurance comparison website, conducted a study of 4,800 Ontario G-licensed drivers. To understand the real-world impact of the driving test changes. MyChoice compared two groups of drivers:

  • 2,400 licensed in 2021 with at least one year of driving experience
  • 2,400 licensed in 2022 with at least one year of driving experience

MyChoice picked drivers randomly and without bias from the overall quotes completed on their website. The company focused on the percentage of drivers involved in accidents for each period. Their findings indicate a concerning trend. After the test changes, the percentage of novice drivers involved in MVAs increased from 9.59% to 10.34%, a 7.82% overall increase. This uptick in MVA rates suggests that removing certain driving test elements may have had unintended consequences on road safety.