Toronto, Ontario — Analysts at Transport Canada were crunching some numbers recently, as analysts are want to do, and found that about one in five vehicles registered in Canada is driving with some sort of unresolved safety recall.
Working with data as recent as 2019, Transport Canada estimates that of the nation’s 33.3 million registered vehicles, about 6.6 million have never had specific safety defects addressed—that’s about 20 percent of all cars on Canadian roads.
“Unresolved safety issues affecting vehicles, restraint systems for children and disabled persons, and tires can lead to property damage, injury or even death,” Transport Canada wrote.
The analysis goes further to suggest potential amendments that would require automakers to be more forthright with recall information in addition to providing recall look-up tools for customers.
In an interview with a Vancouver-area news blog, the Canadian Automobile Association v-p of public affairs Ian Jack said much of the onus is on the driver to keep an eye out for recall notices.
“Unfortunately in this country if you want to know for sure whether there’s a recall issued on your vehicle, you have to pay attention yourself—especially in the case of a used vehicle, because the only name on record that the government would have or that the automaker would have is likely the initial purchaser.”
Jack did clarify, however, that a majority of safety recalls are related to minor, non-life-threatening defects.
“I don’t want to leave the impression that there are millions of vehicles driving around about to explode or kill people in the next five seconds,” he said.
