Fact & Figures

In 2007, there were 15,315 traffic accidents involving injuries on Hong Kong's roads, resulting in 19,625 casualties.  On average, 42 traffic accidents with injuries occurred every day during the year and about three people were killed every week.  Compared to the previous year, the number of accidents and the number of casualties increased by 3.14% and 3.98% respectively.  A total of 160 people died in road traffic accidents in 2007, which is the third lowest number of fatalities recorded in Hong Kong since 1958.

Annexes B and C illustrate that, though the number of traffic accidents with people incurring injuries has not shown any drastic change in the past decade, there has been a decrease in the number of fatalities.  Taking a closer look at the accidents and categorising them by type of collision reveals that in 2007, the number of vehicle collisions involving pedestrians was reduced to 312 cases per month, while that involving vehicles crashing into another vehicle increased to 509 cases per month.  Annex D supplies a complete tabulation of accidents, casualties and fatalities, and accident trends of different types of collisions can be found in Annex E.

2007 General Accident Statistics

The Road Safety Council not only monitors accident statistics, but also investigates their different causes and outcomes.  Pedestrians consistently have the highest number of victims and fatalities, while less experienced drivers are most commonly involved in accidents. (Annexes F1 -F2- F3).


Road Users Injured or Killed

Drivers - including motorcyclists and cyclists - accounted for the largest number of injuries and fatalities in 2007, with 8,883 casualties (45%) versus 4,078 pedestrians (21%) and 6,664 passengers (34%) (Annex G2).  Pedestrians over the age of 60 accounted for 36% of the overall deaths, while drivers accounted for 33% and passengers for 11% of the total. Detailed statistics can be found in Annex G1 and graphs of casualties by road user classes and age is available in Annex H.


Vehicles Involved

Private cars are the largest group involved in accidents. Of the 23,321 vehicles involved in accidents in 2007, there were 6,450 private cars, this in comparison to 4,004 taxis, 2,952 light goods vehicles, 2,927 motorcycles, 2,201 franchised buses and an assortment of other vehicle classes (Annex I).

Road Conditions and Surrounding Environment

Collated statistics show road junctions to have the highest incidence of accidents, with 26% of the total injury-incurred accidents, while 20% of accidents occurred at pedestrian crossings.  Darkness plays an important factor in accident occurrence with 31% of accidents happened during those hours.

The top 5 contributory factors in accidents identified
for different types of road users groups 2007