SINGAPORE: While the number of road fatalities has fallen in recent years, there have been more accidents that resulted in injury, the Traffic Police said on Friday (May 26).
There were 141 fatalities in 2016, down from 160 in 2013.
However, there were almost 8,300 accidents that resulted in injury in 2016, up nine per cent from around 7,600 in 2013.
Speaking at the opening of the Singapore Road Safety Month 2017, which was first launched in 2013, Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health Amrin Amin said that “each fatality is still one too many”.
Mr Amrin added that authorities were particularly concerned about three groups of road users – motorcyclists, elderly pedestrians and children.
Last year, the number of accidents involving elderly pedestrians rose by 20 per cent from 2015, he said.
He added that, in the past few years, motorcyclists were involved in more than half of all fatal accidents and those resulting in injury.
There was one fatality involving a child aged 12 and below last year, and 225 injuries.
A test kit for elderly pedestrians was also launched last year to help the elderly assess their eyesight, hearing and reaction time.”Our efforts to improve road safety have to go beyond infrastructure enhancements like school zones or Silver Zones, and beyond ensuring that drivers keep to speed limits and obey traffic rules,” Mr Amrin said.
“We also need to reach out to these vulnerable groups, so they too understand the importance of taking care of themselves on our roads.”
As part of outreach efforts, Mr Amrin said some delivery companies have bought riding jackets for their riders.
In 2016, the Traffic Police also held road safety talks for more than 67,000 pre-schoolers and primary school students.
To reduce the numbers, the Traffic Police will have also deployed more cameras in accident prone locations, and have begun using mobile speed cameras.
In 2018, the authorities will start using a new speed camera system that tracks the speed of vehicles over a distance. The first cameras will be installed along the new stretch of Tanah Merah Coast Road.
