The Council’s programmes and direction are based on the objective accident trends and causations. Traffic accident statistics and trends are therefore carefully analysed to develop and implement measures to mitigate and prevent traffic accidents.

2013 Statistics

An analysis of Hong Kong’s traffic accident statistics for 2013 reveals that 16,089 traffic accidents involved injuries, with a total of 20,596 casualties. On average, 44 traffic accidents with injuries occurred every day during the year and about three people were killed each week.  Compared with the previous year, the number of accidents and the number of casualties increased slightly by 1.23% and 1.91% respectively. 

Categorising accidents by collision type reveals that in 2013 the number of vehicle collisions involving pedestrians decreased from 3,466 cases in 2012 to 3,329 cases in 2013. However, cases involving vehicles colliding with another vehicle increased from 6,329 cases in 2012 to 6,519 cases in 2013.

While there has not been any significant change in the past decade in the number of traffic accidents involving injuries, there is a downward trend in fatalities. A total of 130 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2013, this is the third lowest number recorded in Hong Kong since 1955.

The Council studies causes and consequences of traffic accidents and maintains a comprehensive traffic accident database to help formulate appropriate road safety strategies. Clearly, pedestrians consistently suffer the highest number of fatalities while private cars are the group most commonly involved in accidents. Of the 24,673 vehicles involved in traffic accidents in 2013, private cars accounted for 7,093, compared with 4,395 taxis, 2,847 public buses, 2,719 bicycles, 2,706 light goods vehicles, 2,222 motorcycles and 2,691 other vehicle types.

Impact of Road Conditions

Statistics show that 23% of injuries related to traffic accidents occurred at road junctions while 28% occurred at pedestrian crossings. Some 29% of traffic accidents happened at night while another 3% occurred around dawn or dusk.

Top five contributory factors in traffic accidents 2013(from four perspectives)