China Day Asia
Progress is being made as social and economic impacts of traffic accidents are recognized amid rapid rise in car ownership
Toward the end of November in North China’s Shanxi province, 56 cars and trucks were involved in a horrific accident that left 17 dead and dozens injured. The incident occurred in snow and rain on an expressway that links Shanxi with Beijing and Kunming, capital of Yunnan province in the country’s southwest.
Traffic accidents are common in China. According to the Global status report on road safety 2015 by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 260,000 people are killed annually on China’s roads.
“Of the total WHO-estimated deaths in China, around six in 10 are vulnerable road users — pedestrians, cyclists and people on motorcycles,” a Beijing-based spokesperson for the organization said, adding that the next global update is not expected until early 2019.
Despite Asia’s appalling road record, China is making some progress.
“China is trying to do its bit,” said Raphael Grzebieta, a professor at the transport and road safety research center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“A huge number of people are killed each year on China’s roads but (the authorities) are trying to tackle the problem. A lot of research into traffic accidents is now being done in China.”
Bernhard Schwartlander, the WHO representative in China, said last year: “The carnage that occurs on the world’s roads every single day is a public health crisis of gargantuan proportions.”
Speaking at a seminar held by WHO China and the Red Cross Society of China entitled Safe Roads Save Lives, he said the related economic cost from traffic accidents is “substantial”.
Globally, an estimated 3 percent of GDP on average is lost to road traffic deaths and injuries, and is even higher at 5 percent in low- and middle-income nations.
“Countries cannot develop sustainably when this many people are dying and being injured on the world’s roads, as they go about their daily lives,” Schwartlander said.
“Road crashes impoverish families, ruin livelihoods and impose a heavy burden on countries’ health systems, societies and economies.”
Of those killed on China’s roads each year, more than 10,000 are children and more than one-third of these children are pedestrians, according to the WHO.
Chinese authorities have moved to reduce the high number of road fatalities by placing more speed cameras in major cities, and compelling bike riders to wear helmets and people in cars to wear seat belts.
According to Grzebieta from the University of New South Wales, having tough laws is one thing, “but those laws need to be strictly enforced”.
Two decades ago, China’s roads were clogged with bicycles. Only the very rich and government officials were driven around in cars. But as China’s economy grew, so too did the wealth and aspirations of its people.
Cars have become something of a status symbol, not only in China but throughout Asia today.
The numbers reflect this desirability. In 1990, 5.5 million people in China owned cars, but by 2010, some 70 million did, according to a report by media group Caixin in 2015.
The Economist magazine has estimated that every year for the past decade, 15 million cars have been added to China’s roads.
According to the China Road Assessment Program, which rates roads for crash risks and develops safety plans, motor vehicle ownership in China reached 279 million by the end of 2015.
Kim Ki-joon, principal transport specialist with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, said road safety requires “multi-disciplinary efforts, capacity and time” to succeed.
“Fatal crashes occur at an individual level when something goes critically wrong in one or any combination of contributing factors, such as the road environment, vehicle condition and road user. And these accidents can involve both motorized and non-motorized users.
“At the aggregated level — city, province or country — the rate of fatal crashes is dependent on governments’ priority and capacity in managing all three contributing factors of crashes.
“At the social level, the rate of fatalities depends on the level of social tolerance and the attitude toward the motorized transport and crashes,” Kim said.
He said that adjusting to the rapid growth of the motorized society requires realigning infrastructure to protect vulnerable road users and giving equal rights to all road users.
There have been various attempts in China at different levels of government to bring in road safety legislation, coupled with effective enforcement. But it takes time to create the environment and culture.
Japan started its national traffic safety program in the 1970s and has achieved one of the highest levels of road safety in the world.
Similarly, South Korea rolled out its national safety program in the late 1980s and halved the fatality rate on the roads within a decade. However, China still has some way to go.
Efforts to reduce road traffic deaths in many parts of developing Asia are still insufficient, according to the ADB’s Kim.
“Achieving effective and long-lasting improvements in road safety has been attained in a number of countries (such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden and Japan) that have adopted a broad approach addressing many dimensions of road safety,” he said.
“The challenge today is for the downward trends in road traffic deaths seen in these countries to be replicated in others, especially in developing countries, but in a shorter timeframe.”
In 2015, the ADB approved a US$200 million loan to improve the accessibility and road safety of major and rural roads in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province.
Some US$50 million of the loan is intended to fund a range of areas including crash reduction programs, road safety design, and road safety education and awareness plans.
According to the World Bank, the total cost of traffic accidents in China is estimated at between 3 and 6 percent of the country’s annual GDP. The bank emphasizes that, in addition to social consequences, these accidents result in substantial economic loss.
Over the last decade, the World Bank has implemented a number of road safety projects in several Chinese provinces in an effort to highlight and address the problem.
“New roads are designed according to safety standards but quickly experience crash ‘black spots’ due to various reasons such as speeding,” the World Bank said.
In a report entitled Reducing Traffic Accidents in China: Strengthening the Use of Road Safety Audits, the World Bank said: “With China’s rapidly expanding road networks and a growing concern for road safety on both new and existing road projects, well-executed road safety audits can help improve road safety and reduce the number and seriousness of car accidents at a low cost-to-benefit ratio.”
Road safety audits are designed to prevent increases in the number of traffic accidents by providing integrated assessments of new or existing road projects. These help to identify problem areas and recommend improvements.
The paper noted that road safety audits bring benefits at the community level through reducing casualties, and at the macro level by establishing crash reduction targets, fostering the importance of road safety engineering, raising awareness of safety needs and improving safety standards and procedures.
“Compared with these benefits, the cost of a safety audit is quite small and can be easily recouped,” the report said.
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| Police inspect the wreckage of a bus in Yizhang county, Central China’s Hunan province, in June last year, after a crash that killed at least 35 people. More than 260,000 people die on China’s roads annually, including 10,000 children, according to the WHO. (AFP) |
Traffic accidents are common in China. According to the Global status report on road safety 2015 by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 260,000 people are killed annually on China’s roads.
“Of the total WHO-estimated deaths in China, around six in 10 are vulnerable road users — pedestrians, cyclists and people on motorcycles,” a Beijing-based spokesperson for the organization said, adding that the next global update is not expected until early 2019.
Despite Asia’s appalling road record, China is making some progress.
“China is trying to do its bit,” said Raphael Grzebieta, a professor at the transport and road safety research center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“A huge number of people are killed each year on China’s roads but (the authorities) are trying to tackle the problem. A lot of research into traffic accidents is now being done in China.”
Bernhard Schwartlander, the WHO representative in China, said last year: “The carnage that occurs on the world’s roads every single day is a public health crisis of gargantuan proportions.”
Speaking at a seminar held by WHO China and the Red Cross Society of China entitled Safe Roads Save Lives, he said the related economic cost from traffic accidents is “substantial”.
Globally, an estimated 3 percent of GDP on average is lost to road traffic deaths and injuries, and is even higher at 5 percent in low- and middle-income nations.
“Countries cannot develop sustainably when this many people are dying and being injured on the world’s roads, as they go about their daily lives,” Schwartlander said.
“Road crashes impoverish families, ruin livelihoods and impose a heavy burden on countries’ health systems, societies and economies.”
Of those killed on China’s roads each year, more than 10,000 are children and more than one-third of these children are pedestrians, according to the WHO.
Chinese authorities have moved to reduce the high number of road fatalities by placing more speed cameras in major cities, and compelling bike riders to wear helmets and people in cars to wear seat belts.
According to Grzebieta from the University of New South Wales, having tough laws is one thing, “but those laws need to be strictly enforced”.
Two decades ago, China’s roads were clogged with bicycles. Only the very rich and government officials were driven around in cars. But as China’s economy grew, so too did the wealth and aspirations of its people.
Cars have become something of a status symbol, not only in China but throughout Asia today.
The numbers reflect this desirability. In 1990, 5.5 million people in China owned cars, but by 2010, some 70 million did, according to a report by media group Caixin in 2015.
The Economist magazine has estimated that every year for the past decade, 15 million cars have been added to China’s roads.
According to the China Road Assessment Program, which rates roads for crash risks and develops safety plans, motor vehicle ownership in China reached 279 million by the end of 2015.
Kim Ki-joon, principal transport specialist with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, said road safety requires “multi-disciplinary efforts, capacity and time” to succeed.
“Fatal crashes occur at an individual level when something goes critically wrong in one or any combination of contributing factors, such as the road environment, vehicle condition and road user. And these accidents can involve both motorized and non-motorized users.
“At the aggregated level — city, province or country — the rate of fatal crashes is dependent on governments’ priority and capacity in managing all three contributing factors of crashes.
“At the social level, the rate of fatalities depends on the level of social tolerance and the attitude toward the motorized transport and crashes,” Kim said.
He said that adjusting to the rapid growth of the motorized society requires realigning infrastructure to protect vulnerable road users and giving equal rights to all road users.
There have been various attempts in China at different levels of government to bring in road safety legislation, coupled with effective enforcement. But it takes time to create the environment and culture.
Japan started its national traffic safety program in the 1970s and has achieved one of the highest levels of road safety in the world.
Similarly, South Korea rolled out its national safety program in the late 1980s and halved the fatality rate on the roads within a decade. However, China still has some way to go.
Efforts to reduce road traffic deaths in many parts of developing Asia are still insufficient, according to the ADB’s Kim.
“Achieving effective and long-lasting improvements in road safety has been attained in a number of countries (such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden and Japan) that have adopted a broad approach addressing many dimensions of road safety,” he said.
“The challenge today is for the downward trends in road traffic deaths seen in these countries to be replicated in others, especially in developing countries, but in a shorter timeframe.”
In 2015, the ADB approved a US$200 million loan to improve the accessibility and road safety of major and rural roads in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province.
Some US$50 million of the loan is intended to fund a range of areas including crash reduction programs, road safety design, and road safety education and awareness plans.
According to the World Bank, the total cost of traffic accidents in China is estimated at between 3 and 6 percent of the country’s annual GDP. The bank emphasizes that, in addition to social consequences, these accidents result in substantial economic loss.
Over the last decade, the World Bank has implemented a number of road safety projects in several Chinese provinces in an effort to highlight and address the problem.
“New roads are designed according to safety standards but quickly experience crash ‘black spots’ due to various reasons such as speeding,” the World Bank said.
In a report entitled Reducing Traffic Accidents in China: Strengthening the Use of Road Safety Audits, the World Bank said: “With China’s rapidly expanding road networks and a growing concern for road safety on both new and existing road projects, well-executed road safety audits can help improve road safety and reduce the number and seriousness of car accidents at a low cost-to-benefit ratio.”
Road safety audits are designed to prevent increases in the number of traffic accidents by providing integrated assessments of new or existing road projects. These help to identify problem areas and recommend improvements.
The paper noted that road safety audits bring benefits at the community level through reducing casualties, and at the macro level by establishing crash reduction targets, fostering the importance of road safety engineering, raising awareness of safety needs and improving safety standards and procedures.
“Compared with these benefits, the cost of a safety audit is quite small and can be easily recouped,” the report said.
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