Thousands of Vietnamese died on the road last year, but the number of fatalities decreased considerably compared to 2016.
During the last few days of 2017, Vietnam’s National Traffic Safety Committee released a report on the country’s traffic accidents of the year, according to Zing.
Statistics show that in the year of the rooster, some 20,000 accidents happened due to traffic in Vietnam, killing more than 8,000 victims and injuring 17,000 others. Despite the grave results, the committee also noted that these figures actually decreased in comparison with 2016.
Specifically, there were 1,500 fewer accidents while the number of victims killed and injured dropped by 400 and 2,000, respectively. In 2015, almost 9,000 people also lost their lives to street collisions.
Of all the methods of transport, road vehicles continue to be the deadliest, unsurprisingly. Some 19,7000 crashes on the street claimed a total of 8,000 lives and sent almost 17,000 to the hospital.
Only 160 collisions happened that involved trains with the rates of fatalities and injury of 133 and 50, respectively. Local rivers also saw 100 accidents while 19 other incidents occurred at sea.
Traveling by air remains the safest means of transport with zero incidents and fatalities, despite the inconvenience caused by local airlines’ rampant delays and cancellations.
The traffic committee’s report added a section on Vietnam’s helmet use, saying that after 10 years of mandatory helmet use, the country’s number of fatalities dropped by 15,000. Head-related injuries also decreased significantly with over 550,000 cases averted. The helmet policy also saved the local economy US$3.5 billion.
[Photo via Doi Song Phap Luat]
