Shanghai Turns Out an Astonishing Death to Accident Ratio
We’re not sure if this is a condemnation of Chinese car quality, but 9,132 accidents were reported in Shanghai last year, resulting in a horrifying 1,699 deaths. That's means nearly 19 percent of all traffic accidents result in a death.
Even more astonishing is that number of accidents is down 25.7 percent from 2006, according to Shanghai Daily. The number of deaths was also down 5.6 percent.
The numbers are also alarming to city officials, as they have allocated 1.58 million yuan ($222,535) to improve the safety at its most dangerous intersections. Shanghai officials also plan to use the money to eliminate 63 dangers on the city’s most deadly roadways.
The number of accidents, likely, reflects the number of pedestrians roaming Shanghai, as the population is over 20 million strong. We are in no way knocking Chinese automobiles, well, not really.
+ Shanghai Daily: City traffic accidents top fatal hazards
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Comments
Pats Missing Toe
who cares how many accident related deaths there are in china? if anybody outside of china ever buys one of their cars they deserve a similar fate. it isn't news to anyone that the chinese government treats their citizens like disposable trash. they only care about cheap products for maximum profit. once upon a time in america, henry ford was turning out the same dangerous products with no attention paid to occupant safety and drivers were dying at the same rate. it's all about the profit, MAN !
FLASHPOINT
Don't you just feel the love?
hwyhobo
Wait, if the number of accidents is down 25.7% from 2006, and the number of deaths is down 5.6%, that means the ratio of deaths per accident has increased significantly.
How do you get one dead per 5 accidents? Do they clobber each other to death after each fender bender?
BruceinCary
probably not reporting all accidents therefore that ratio is suspect. Regardless that's a bunch of deaths! How many people die in LA county each year as a referance anyone?
David J Corcoran
I'd expect that this is an aberration and will over time revert back to a more reasonable mean
hwyhobo
How many people die in LA county each year as a referance anyone?
I don't have a total number of accidents, but for the entire California, we had 4197 traffic-related deaths in 2006. LA County was the biggest contributor at 801 (with 10 milion population). Santa Clara County (my home) with 2 milion population contributed 96.
GeoSB8K
Car on bike, car on chicken wagon, car on scooter, anyway you fry it, until they clear the roadways for cars only and people get a good decade of driving under their belts it's going to be an ugly scene over there. Also, spending around a quater million to improve safety is a bit of a joke for a city that large.
chartguy
The word is "astonishing".
Russ Bellinis
Geo, you forgot "car on rickshaw." I don't know how they classify the accidents, or if they are talking about the drivers who were killed or are they talking about the number of pedestrians, byciclists, motorbike riders or other non drivers who were killed by cars?
Scratch
Consider the source. I'm sure their lying about something. They probably plagarized the stats from Pakistan or something.
Jonathan Fung
If pedestrians are the primary ones contributing to the death ratio, I'm not too surprised. Pedestrians are all over the place in China (and rarely in crosswalks.) After being in China for three weeks, I did several months of white-knuckle driving back here, constantly under an illogical fear that pedestrians would walk stupidly in front of my car.
I'm sure that if we had peds playing Frogger in our streets here, easily our drivers would be smashing into them just as often, if not more. Because those people in China have super-reflexes when they drive.
PW
I am sitting in Shenzhen, going back to Shanghai on Sunday. If you have a car here, you are in a "superior class" and pedestrians are worthy of being run over. The same driving style in Detroit will get you pulled out of your car and beaten, or shot.
The diversity of the vehicles on the road and the douche bags in the S600s or 730Lis that just don't care make it extremely dangerous. Some of these vehicles look like something from 1902 America. Single cylinder engines with a belt drive to the front axle.
95% of the scooters have no lights, they come out of nowhere at night when you are crossing a street. Especially the quiet electric ones.
If you think you have *#%$hole drivers in your town in the USA, they cannot compare to what you see here. It is just completely f-ing insane.
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