Britain’s annual road deaths tally is the lowest out of 33 countries surveyed by an international transport watchdog which has declared the last 10 years “a record decade for road safety”.
Latest fatality figures published today by the Paris-based International Transport Forum show dramatic falls in road deaths since the turn of the century in 30 of the countries included.
In terms of road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Britain’s figure last year stood at 3.8 – compared with 23.8 in Malaysia at the other end of the scale.
Safety first: Britain’s roads have fewer deaths than any other in the world according the new survey
The steepest declines in fatalities were recorded in Spain, Portugal and France in the last 10 years, while last year saw America’s lowest death toll on the roads for 60 years, at 11.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Measured as road fatalities per billion kilometres driven, the risk of dying in a road accident is smallest in Sweden (5.1), followed by the UK (5.2) and Switzerland (5.6).
It is highest in Korea (20.1 deaths per billion kilometres), the Czech Republic (19.4) and Malaysia (17.7.).
Portugal’s traffic-related deaths toll has fallen by 55pc since the start of the century, Spain’s by 53pc and that of France by 47pc.
The UK’s figure fell by 35pc and America’s by 19pc. The three countries with a worsening road accident record are Argentina, Cambodia and Malaysia.
International Transport Forum Secretary General Jack Short hailed the figures as “a record decade for road safety”, adding: “Reducing fatalities around the world will be accelerated by rapid and effective transfer of knowledge, good practice and information from the best performing countries.”
Fred Wegman, chairman of the OECD’s International Road Traffic and Accident Database which compiled the figures, commented: “In comparison to preceding decades, we have made a significant leap in the reduction of deadly road incidents during the first decade of the 21st century.”
But he warned: “Trends are much more worrying in many developing countries.”
There were substantial cuts in motorcycle fatalities in the last decade too, notably by 45pc in Portugal and 39pc in Korea.
But there were also huge rises – by 170pc in Finland and 100pc in Slovenia.
“These increases (in motorcycle deaths) are only partly explained by the rise in the number of motorcycles,” said Veronique Feypell-de La Beaumelle, road safety expert at the International Transport Forum.
“In the UK, for instance, motorcycle accidents were down 23pc, despite a 45pc increase in the number of motorcycles on the road.”
The Forum has set up a Motorcycle Safety Working Group to study the problem.
The United Nations has declared the next 10 years to be the “Decade of Action for Road Safety”, with a target of stabilising and then reducing global road deaths by 2020.
Just look at the list below if you are lazy to read.
Road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009:
Malaysia – 23.8
Argentina – 18.4
Greece – 13.8
Cambodia – 12.6
Korea – 12.0
Poland – 12.0
US – 11.1
Lithuania – 11.0
New Zealand – 8.9
Belgium – 8.9
Czech Rep – 8.6
Slovenia – 8.4
Hungary – 8.2
Portugal – 7.9
Italy – 7.9
Austria – 7.6
Luxembourg – 7.2
Australia – 6.9
France – 6.9
Canada – 6.3
Spain – 5.9
Denmark – 5.5
Ireland – 5.4
Iceland – 5.3
Finland – 5.3
Germany – 5.1
Japan – 4.5
Switzerland – 4.5
Norway – 4.4
Israel – 4.2
Sweden – 3.9
Netherlands – 3.9
UK – 3.8
Malaysia Boleh. We are the best in … what? Road deaths.. OMG.. 23.8 death per 100,000 inhabitants.
So, the next time you drive it will be best for you to keep that number in mind. From my understanding that out of 100,000 people, 23.8 people actually died from road accidents. Unfortunately no additional information is provided, we don’t know those accidents is from driving a car or riding a bike but I am guessing that Rempit is one of the major factor.
“We cannot hide the facts. It is everyone’s responsibility to react to it instead of just relying on government agencies to do something about it,” said Dr Ahmad Farhan yesterday.
He added that one of the major contributors to road deaths was motorcycle accidents.
Yes. We cannot hide from the fact that our road death bad and I really appreciate Dr Ahmad Farhan for not deflecting or saying that we are not the worst in comparing with some other countries.
We also cannot hide from the fact that most Malaysian has to travel around on our own transport since the public transport system network is so wide and reliable too.
Meanwhile, Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh has disputed the results of the report.
“It needs to take into account other Asean countries as well. Compared to the World Health Organisation’s list of countries by traffic-related deaths, Malaysia is certainly not the worst,” he said.
He declined to comment further until detailed studies on the report were done by the department.
Datuk Suret Singh simply “tai-chi” his way out by stating Malaysia is certainly not the worst. Come on! Just learn from Dr Ahmad Farhan. Admit that our road deaths is a problem and improve the situation.
Reference:
http://news1.capitalbay.com/news/britain_s_roads_have_fewest.html
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/18/nation/7061384&sec=nation
Hey careful with these figures. First question to ask is why was Malaysia picked to be in the 33 countries selected for the survey? Are we among the world’s top 33 developed countries? No. Secondly, do we have the most vehicles on our roads? No. Thirdly are we among 33 countries with the longest road networks? Also No.
Then why was Malaysia picked for the study?
Only they can answer.
This is a funny response. What’s with being so defensive? It’s clearly stated that the figures are based on per 100k inhabitants – not by how developed a country is, not by how many cars they have.
Also, the report is based on the 33 countries who participated in the ITF. Malaysia is ranked highest of the 33 countries.
So what excuse are YOU going to give? That Malaysians drive poorly manufactured cars and have roads full of potholes that contribute to the ‘deaths’?
If you even bothered to read from the source links, it’s stated that :
“ITF is an inter-governmental organisation linked to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
According to ITF’s website, Malaysia had only recently joined its International Road Traffic and Accident Database which was a mechanism for providing an aggregated database, in which international accidents and victims as well as exposure data were collected on a continuous basis.”
If Malaysia want to join/participate in this database gathering, then buck up and accept the figures. Just because it showed a negative result, the government is disputing the results of the reports. Denial denial denial – that’s what our government is good at, and based on your reply, you seem to be one of the people living in denial as well.
How can the country progress in anything if the government kept denying and disputing results of internationally conducted reports/surveys? Remember the University rankings? When any of the local Uni improve one rank, then it’s “We’ve moved up one rank” – all seem mighty proud of it. The moment the results show that we’ve moved down, then it’s excuses time.
Pathetic.
Hi Yahya, Malaysia is not picked for the survey. Rather, Malaysia actually join to be one of the country to be survey, which is good actually.
Not saying that we are the worst in the world. But Malaysia definitely has the highest among the survey country so far.
If our country don’t have the most vehicles on the roads, don’t have the longest road networks and not the most developed country in the world, shouldn’t the road deaths be comparatively lower? I wonder if the first commentor is defending Malaysia (for being ‘unfairly’ compared to other countries) or giving excuses for Malaysia (implying the road deaths are due to the country’s backwardness)
Yahya Abd. Wahab, it’s no use defending Malaysia, it doesn’t work. The figures are correctly reported, see the comments of others above … those with 2 eyes instead of one, like you have. It would be better if you and other Malaysians like you spent less energy on uselessly tring to cover up the country’s inadequacies, and more on actually doing something effective about a shocking situation!
Hi all,
You guys are really pathetic.Yes our road death is a concern and for that I’ve devoted my retirement to promoting road safety amongst motorcyclists. But YOU all missed my point. Say if our road death is 23.8 per 100K POPULATION and say if we all spent our fertile nights with our spouse our population will definitely increase the following year. If there are more non driving population coming in then the figure will definitely come down. See , there is no relationship with road death and the total population. India and China will surely record a low figure even though actual death are much much higher than ours.
Comparing road death with vehicle population, yes. Comparing death with total road length yes. But with total population is definitely our to blur others.
I don’t think Rempit is one of the major factors. From my experience on Malaysian roads it’s the careless driving attitude… overtaking left, overtaking right… then all the motorbikes doing whatever they want, not wearing any safety equipment (look at MotoGP… they crash at insane speeds, get up and are angry that they are out of the race. Not that they are hurt, cause they are not). Finally, the cars. Look at the ANCAP crash test of the Proton Jumpback… basically a Wira it seems. You might as well jump down a bridge.
Compare that to Germany. There are quite a few bike accidents (and deaths) because they love to drive fast (a friend did about 200 km/h through the countryside and 150 driving through a town… though that’s not all too common), but if they go slower then they do have a decent chance of survival. When there is a car accident, it is usually the old car without safety equipment that kills it’s passenger. Or if someone doesn’t wear his seatbelt.
But still, Germans usually drive 140 km/h on the Autobahn, trucks drive 80 or 100, some cars drive faster (200+). They are used to that, and the cars were made to drive those speeds, so there are few deaths. All cars, even the cheap ones (e.g. the Fiat Panda, about 6700 Euro -> RM29000, size I’d say a bit bigger than the Myvi) have 2 airbags and ABS as standard equipment. The Myvi is sold in Germany too, with 4 airbags minimum (you can have more if you want) for RM34000 for the basic one (there is no aircon though… it’s not absolutely necessary). There is a 19% sales tax on cars, btw., the prices include the sales tax. People refuse to buy cars that have performed badly in crash tests, such as the Brilliance BS6, regardless of how low the price is. They’d rather buy a smaller car, or an older one. Cars have to be checked every 2 years to ensure they are roadworthy (including the exhaust… road tax also depends on how much they polute the air… a new car might not have to pay road tax, while older ones like my Renault 19 1.9D can cost over RM2500-3000 a year… forcing people to consider buying newer cars). If they are not, you may not drive it anymore until it is fixed.
So I think it’s a number of issues… people refusing to wear seatbelts (as I have seen Singaporeans unbuckling as soon as they cross the border… hope they get involved in a car accident), cars that are just not safe (that includes Japanese models, which seem to be downgraded in order to be sold in Malaysia. European cars seem to get sold with all the “regular” safety equipment, but due to the high taxes on import cars they are simply too expensive for most Malay). They try to ensure that cars remain more or less safe. Malay seem to drive with no regard for safety… as long as the car runs it is ok (well, at least my relatives are like that). People drive faster in Germany (the rest of Europe travels as slow as Malaysia), but that IMHO also leads to better drivers, which are more aware of their surrounding, give way when someone drives faster (well… not all do that, usually the inexperienced drivers are a bit of a problem). Driving students are instructed to constantly look into the rear mirror or turn their head when driving onto the highway (when I drive like that in Malaysia my relatives complain!). Germans usually drive with their headlights on, even on a sunny day (increases visibility, which leads to fewer accidents). Try doing that in Malaysia. The constant friendly reminders that I have my headlights on even led me to stop doing it in Malaysia.
In order to reduce road deaths then the government has to force Proton and Perodua to install at least 2 airbags into each and every car. Crash tests that demonstrate the difference between a safe and unsafe car would help, especially when they tell the people which cars are safe and which ones are not (the Myvi is actually a rather safe car, but I don’t trust the Perodua version… they try to make as much profit as possible). Educating the public on driving style and enforcing certain rules (like not overtaking any way you like) should help too. It is a good sign that Malaysia has joined the ITF, now they have to work on bringing down the road deaths.
If you want more numbers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate Sort by deaths per car, as I think that is the most valuable information. Yes, Malaysia isn’t the worst country, but it’s pretty bad. And should Malaysia really say other countries are worse? Yes, there are worse ones, but that’s like African countries, the former Sowjet Union and some other third world countries.
Also, Japanese cars seem to be pretty safe, judging by the statistics. Unless they sell them to Malaysia.