The role of driver education in the licensing process in Quebec.

Problem: In many jurisdictions, driver education (DE) graduates, compared to non-graduates, are granted a time-discount that allows them to drive unsupervised several months earlier, despite little evidence of a safety benefit and consistent evidence of increased crash risk. Confounding factors may be threatening the validity of DE evaluations. A theoretical framework called the "licensing process" (LP) is proposed to identify and explore potential confounding factors in DE evaluations.

Wireless telephones and the risk of road crashes.

In light of the rapidly increasing development of the cell phone market, the use of such equipment while driving raises the question of whether it is associated with an increased accident risk; and if so, what is its magnitude. This research is an epidemiological study on two large cohorts, namely users and non-users of cell phones, with the objective of verifying whether an association exists between cell phone use and road crashes, separating those with injuries. The Société de l'Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ) mailed a questionnaire and letter of consent to 175000 licence holders for passenger vehicles.