Traffic Accidents Statistics
      In 2003, there were 14,436 traffic accidents involving injury on Hong Kong's roads causing 18,310 casualties. And while the number of accidents fell by 1140 against 2002, some 202 people died on our roads, up by 31 on the previous year, mainly due to the tragic accident on the Tuen Mun Road in July
2003 which took 21 lives. On average this means there are about 40 traffic accidents every day and about four people killed in road accidents every week.
        Traffic accidents involving injuries (Annexes B and C) have shown a slight upward trend since 1998, although there had been a sharp drop in the number of fatalities, until 2002. A table of accidents, casualties and fatalities per ratio of 100,000 population and 1,000 licensed vehicles can be found at (Annex D). An analysis of traffic accidents by type of collision revealed that the trend in vehicles colliding with pedestrians fell to an average of 344 cases per month in 2003 and accidents involving vehicles colliding with other vehicle to an average of 487 cases per month for the past nine years since 1994 (Annex E).

        Apart from monitoring accident statistics, the Council also analyses accidents, their causes and the most vulnerable groups. The single most vulnerable group was pedestrians recording the highest number of fatalities, while the most vulnerable drivers were the relatively inexperienced ones. Examining the category of light goods vehicle drivers, the highest involvement rate within this group was those with 12 to 13 years driving experience (Annexes F1-F3).
General 2003 Accident Statistics
 

• Road users injured or killed

        Drivers ─ including motorcyclists and cyclists ─ accounted for the largest number with 7,689 casualties (43%) as against 4,517 pedestrians (25%) and 6,104 passengers (33%) (Annex G1). With regard to fatalities, there were 202 as against 171 in 2002, with pedestrians continuing to be the most vulnerable group accounting for 50% of the total.  The  highest  number  of  pedestrians killed

were over 60 years of age, accounting for 35% of the total deaths. Drivers accounted for 66 fatalities (32%), and passengers for 37 deaths (18%) of the total figure (Annex G2). A history of casualties by class of road users and by age can be found at Annex H.
 
• Vehicles involved
 
        Of the 21,573 vehicles involved in accidents last year, private cars continued to form the largest group with 6,282 private cars, 3,397 taxis and 2,736 motorcycles followed by 2,728 light goods vehicle and 1,828 franchised buses. The accident rate per 1,000 vehicles echoes trends established in previous years with the  highest  accident  rate among
franchised buses (291), public light buses (232.4) and taxis (188.8). The rate for private cars was down 3.4 on the previous year and remained the lowest at just 18.6 per thousand vehicles. (Annex I)
 

• Road conditions and surrounding environment

        The statistics revealed that 31% of all collisions with injuries occurred at road junctions, 41% at pedestrian crossings, and 28% at other locations. Some 30% of these accidents occurred during the hours of darkness.


• Traffic Accidents ─ Contributory Factors
        The Top 5 contributory factors to accidents identified by the different types of road users, vehicles and accident environments are :
 
Drivers
Number of Drivers

Driving too close to vehicle in front
Losing control of vehicle
Trying to avoid collision or otherwise
Careless lane changing
Turning negligently

1797 1277 1043 973 880
Drivers, Passengers or Pedestrians ─ as Casualties
 Number of Casualties

Crossing road heedless of traffic (elsewhere)
Inattentive
Crossing road heedless of traffic (at crossing)
Falling inside bus/PLB (sudden stopping/starting)
Falling on stairways of bus

1154 804 710 548 173
Vehicles
 Number of Vehicles

Defective brake
Unidentified vehicle (hit-and-run)
Defective or illegal tyre
Tyre blown out before impact
Defective body work

60 55 22 20 17
Accident Environment Number of Incidents

Pedestrian negligence
Object or animal on road
Slippery road (not related to weather)
Slippery road (caused by weather)
Potholes

180 158 133 95 58

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