Dig Deeper：Watch out! Traffic accidents!

【明報專訊】It is believed that the number of severe traffic accidents can be reduced with higher vehicle standards, better laws for road safety, more efficient enforcement the law, and education. The World Health Organization specifically points out that the risk of dying in a road traffic crashes is more than 3 times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries.

Owing to the importance of this issue, governments and non-governmental organizations have been gathering statistics on road safety and traffic accidents.

◆How many road traffic accidents were recorded in Hong Kong？

(See the table)

◆How many people lose their lives in road traffic crashes each year?

Approximately 1.3 million people in the world. In Hong Kong, 97 were killed in road traffic accidents in 2020.

◆How many licensed vehicles are there in Hong Kong in 2020?

817,874. There has been a significant increase in licensed vehicles over the past 10 years. The number has surged from 766,200 in 2017 to this unprecedentedly high figure.

◆Which district recorded the highest amount of road traffic accidents in 2020?

Yuen Long. It recorded a total of 1571 traffic accidents.

■Glossary

severe (adj) 嚴重的

enforcement (n) 實行

statistic (n) 統計數據

significant (adj) 顯著的

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[Smarties' Power English 第345期]