Thursday, October 02, 2003

Who gets killed on the road?

See the updated post here

According to the traffic statistics in the Singapore Police Force's Annual Report 2000/1, motorcyclists and their pillion riders are the single largest road user group involved in accidents - accounting for 46% of road fatalities in 2000/1 and 52% of people slightly or seriously injured. The sheer numbers make them a specific target group for road safety measures by the police. Trends point to peak hour accidents and younger riders.

But if you look at fatalities amongst all accidents for 2000/1, the fatality rate for all accidents is 2.1% (407/19,308). This is contributed largely by the fatalities by motorbikes and their pillion riders at 1.9% (187/10,029). Motorcar drivers and passengers are relatively safe at 1% (47/4,584). Cyclists on the other hand have a 3.9% (27/689) fatality in reported accidents and for pedestrians, its 6.1% (113/1,852)!

I am missing estimates for number of road users by user group. Considering the relatively small number of cyclists on the road, the 27 fatalities are high. But I can understand Traffic Police being more concerned, for now, about the 10,000+ injury-resulting accidents involving motorbikes.

First posted on Otterman speaks