Abstract
In 1979, a total of 8,461 lives were lost in road traffic accidents, and this represents a decrease for the ninth consecutive year. However, the number of those injured increased slightly over that of a year earlier, to 596,287, and along with a similar increase in the number of road traffic accidents, remained level with that of the previous year. Problems involving road traffic accidents that occurred in 1979 varied according to the pattern of occurrence from prefecture to prefecture, city to city. Deaths of pedestrians and cyclists accounted for close to half of the total road traffic accidents ending in deaths. The number of deaths of pedestrians 60 years of age and older and of cyclists increased. (A)