Traffic accidents in Japan have increased rapidly since the 1950s with the growth in road transport. Fatalities surpassed 10,000 for the first time in 1959 and reached 16,765 in 1970. This has become a major social problem often typified by the expression "road warfare". The Traffic Safety Policies Law was enacted in 1970 in response to the situation and a comprehensive range of traffic accident prevention measures was implemented. These included greater presence on the roads with more traffic police officers, the introduction of an infringement system, improvements in the road and traffic environment and greater traffic safety activities at all levels in the community. As a result, the number of traffic accidents fell sharply and fatalities due to traffic accidents stood at 8,466 in 1979, almost half that of the peak in 1970. However, traffic accident fatalities reverted into an upward trend after bottoming out in the latter half of the 1970s and exceeded 10,000 for eight consecutive years. Although the number of fatalities came under 10,000 in 1999 for the fourth consecutive year, at the present time, the number of traffic accidents resulting in injury or death and the number of injuries still maintain the same high level. Road accidents during 1999 can be broken down as follows: • Fatalities : 9,006 (Comparison with previous year: -205; -2.2%). • Injuries : 1,050,397 (Comparison with previous year: +59,722; +6.0%). • Accidents : 850,363 (Comparison with previous year: +46,485; +5.8%). While fatalities were below 10,000 for the fourth consecutive year, the number of accidents were the worst on record for the seventh year in a row and the number of injuries exceeded 1 million for the first time on record. Aspects which were particularly evident in fatal traffic accidents during 1999 were: • The number of fatalities among motor vehicle occupants fell but still made up a major proportion of all fatalities. • The number of fatalities in the 16 -24 age group fell dramatically. • Fatalities among senior citizens in the 65 and over age group decreased but still made up a large proportion of fatalities overall. • Fatal accidents resulting from exceeding the maximum speed limit fell dramatically. • Fatalities among vehicle occupants not wearing seatbelts decreased but fatalities among those wearing seatbelts increased. Statistics have always been kept on fatalities which occur within 24 hours of an accident and, since 1993, fatalities which occur within 30 days of an accident have also been added to the statistics. In 1999, this figure was 10,372. The ratio of fatalities within 30 days of an accident to fatalities within 24 hours was 1.15 times. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting