CARSP SNN Interview – Maxime Brault

Kristine D’Arbelles
Thanks again for being here. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you. You are the Director of Road Safety Research at the Société de l’assurance automobile (SAAQ). Your team is in charge of providing road safety knowledge that informs public policy, both by analyzing and interpreting accident data and by working with Québec researchers on studies targeting issues that are specific to Québec, but are also relevant to the entire road safety community. Thanks again, Maxime, for being with us today.

Brault, Maxime
It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Kristine D’Arbelles
My first question—we always like to start interviews like this—is just to get to know you a little better. If you had to tell us a fun fact about yourself, what would it be? Anything interesting you’d like to share with our members?

Brault, Maxime
Sure. I’m also a part-time actor, although I’ve done less of that in recent years. But I was even a member of the Union des artistes in Québec, the union for actors and comedians. I discovered the joy of theatre, improv and all that as a teenager. Then I worked for a company in Québec City that did interactive theatre and murder mystery evenings. So I had to be good at improvising and all that. It also helped me with research in a way because of the creativity, trying to find unexpected solutions. I can also see the parallels when people ask me, “You speak at conferences, doesn’t that stress you out?” And I say, “Well, I did theatre and it’s pretty much the same.” The important thing is to know your lines, the stage directions, your movements. A presentation is kind of the same thing: know your content, know what you’re going to say.
And your movements. Well, in that case, it would be the order in which you put your slides or organize your presentation, so I sort of draw on that from my past as a part-time actor. So that’s what I share with the people around me, here at work.

Kristine D’Arbelles
That’s great, I like that. And I like how the things we do outside of work can sometimes help us with our work. The things we do in our lives, just for fun, can sometimes help us in our career. And as you mentioned, improvisation, presentation, it helps a lot in road safety when you need to present data instead of just showing the numbers and figures.

Brault, Maxime
Exactly! And we have to make sure the audience understands our content. So we have to be able to make it understandable, clear and often in lay terms. So, those are elements needed in road safety.

Kristine D’Arbelles
And why road safety? What led you to work in our field?

Brault, Maxime
It was a bit by chance, actually. I initially trained as a statistician, even though I did a master’s in epidemiology a little later while I was working, but as a statistician, obviously, you can work with numbers in many fields, like psychology, biology, any scientific field. And with all that, we’re often sort of alone in our teams; we’re like the “numbers guy” that people say: “Oh, well, we’ll ask him, he’ll help us.” And as a new statistician, a new professional, I often had to consult with fellow statisticians. I heard that there were several statisticians working at the SAAQ at the time, in the statistics department. So I applied there five years after working in other fields, and I ended up at the SAAQ, in the statistics department, but I was soon working with teams conducting road safety studies and analyses. And then I joined the road safety teams, so I basically stumbled into a field that I came to love. And since around 1993, I’ve worked solely in road safety and it’s an area of activity I truly love.

Kristine D’Arbelles
I conducted a few interviews in my new position on the editorial board, and the last time I interviewed someone in the road safety industry, he told me the same thing. That he just randomly ended up in road safety. I find that a lot of people stumble into our industry. He’s doing something else. And then something leads them into the safety industry. Even I didn’t study road safety in college or university; I was in communications. But I fell into road safety in my position at CAA, so I think it’s common for many people in our industry.

Brault, Maxime
Yes, exactly.

Kristine D’Arbelles
My next question is: in your opinion, what is one of the most pressing matters that needs to be studied in the road safety industry?

Brault, Maxime
There are several things that we could have mentioned because there are many advancements that still need to be made, in all areas. Obviously, we talk a lot about Vision Zero in our strategies and in government administrations regarding road safety and all that. So we are aiming for the fewest possible fatalities and serious injuries, but we could identify a few things. But I have maybe two that I’ll bring up. First, maybe, how to ensure better coexistence on the road.
Especially concerning vulnerable road users. That’s pedestrians, cyclists and I would also include motorcyclists on that list. When we look at the road safety record in Québec, the improvement for these groups has not been as considerable as for users of vehicles like light trucks and heavy trucks, for example.  Twenty years ago, vulnerable road users made up 20% to 25% of fatalities. Today, it’s 35% to 40% when we look at our road safety records. So there are different elements we need to understand about coexistence, especially since more and more modes of transportation are being added with the electrification of small transportation devices—electric scooters, electric bikes as well—which can travel at greater speeds than when we were just on foot. So all sorts of elements create a need for coexistence even among vulnerable users. Even bicyclists, electric scooter users and pedestrians. So I think we still have a lot of research to do on that front, so that’s one point I had noted.

The other point is that there are more and more technologies being used. We use technology to, among other things, do this interview remotely and all that. It has very useful capabilities for work and for all sorts of things. But we’re bringing all sorts of tech into our vehicle. We have our cell phone with us when we travel. We sometimes have trouble detaching from it, but vehicles are also full of new screens, applications to listen to music, use GPS, for navigation and more. So that leads to a lot of distractions behind the wheel. These are issues we examine closely at the SAAQ.
We are also keeping an eye on all the technological advances in the vehicle itself, like driver-assistance features and autonomous vehicles, which will also bring a whole new dynamic to travel. And yes, we believe these vehicle technology elements will increase safety, but we might go through phases where we’ll have a difficult coexistence between someone who doesn’t have their hands on the wheel or their foot on the pedals and someone who does. So I think these are important research subjects in the next few years.

Kristine D’Arbelles
Yes, with technology, knowing what it can do for us, how it can help us with road safety, and its limitations as well. Right now, there are vehicles that can help with highway driving. You don’t need to touch anything and it stays in the lane and slows down for the car in front of you, but you are still the one driving. So the technological transition itself is also interesting. And drivers will need to understand, what do I need to do and what does the technology do? How does it help me?

Brault, Maxime
Exactly right.

Kristine D’Arbelles
Finally, the last question. As we mentioned at the beginning, you know, sometimes people get into road safety, fall into it; they don’t plan for it, but it happens. But for young people and for people who really have a plan and want a career in road safety, what advice would you give them?

Brault, Maxime
That’s right, as we said, there’s no bachelor’s degree in road safety. Sometimes you get into it by chance after choosing another field, like communications, statistics, engineering and so on. The beauty of road safety is that it’s multifactorial, so there are many elements; it touches on several disciplines. And they need to work together to improve safety on our roads. What I found interesting when I fell in love with road safety as a profession, is that it’s a social mission of public interest. We know that road accidents and collisions are tragic for families and friends, for people who lose someone in a crash or who suffer injuries that leave them with a long-term disability or other. This work is important for the community, to reduce the costs and ensure that there is less harm caused to families. What I would say is that since there is no specific degree, get involved with the road safety community. CARSP is a great example, the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals. It’s a gathering place where you can make road safety friends. Or how I share, I work in partnership. All these networking elements are important for someone looking to build a career in road safety. Don’t hesitate to contact researchers, practitioners in the government and the people in charge of road safety as well, to really develop your skills in that area and see how you can make a career out of it, because it’s a great career. After about 30 years, I can say from experience that it’s really interesting. And it gives a lot of professional satisfaction.

Kristine D’Arbelles
Yes, we’re a friendly bunch, and we like to talk. So, if you have questions, we’re always available. Great advice. That’s all the questions I had for you. Thanks so much for being with us today.

Brault, Maxime
It was my pleasure. Have a good rest of your day.