A road accident that occurred in Northwest China's Qinghai Province on January 3 has again aroused widespread concern over road safety.

At least 54 were killed and 41 injured when a truck overturned near the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

The truck, which should have been scrapped and towed into the junk yard years ago, was loaded with 104 passengers returning from their pilgrimage to Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most were from the Garze and Aba Tibetan autonomous prefectures in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. And on January 6, an out-of-control truck crashed into a bus on the highway near Putian, East China's Fujian Province, killing 28 passengers.

Shockingly, such accounts of avoidable fatal mayhem are not rare occurrences.

Accidents have been rising over the years as more and more vehicles take to the road.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security suggest that the number of yearly traffic accidents increased from 6,000 in 1951 to 667,507 in 2003 -- killing a staggering 104,372 people and injuring 494,174.

Could it be worse, you may ask? Yes. From January to November last year, more than 96,870 died in traffic accidents -- up 1.5 per cent from the same period in 2003 -- and around 435,740 were injured, according to the ministry's statistics.

Expense of growth?

The increase may be a result of rapid growth in the economy.

Following the nation's fast economic development in the past 25 years, people have more money and an increasing number of them are buying cars. More and more goods are traversing the country by trucks.

"More attention must be paid to the damage this is causing," said He Yong, director of the Road Safety Engineering Research Centre of the Ministry of Communications.

Statistics shows that around 90 per cent of passengers and 75 per cent cargo use road transport, Xinhua News Agency reported.

To meet such a huge demand, the nation has sped up road constructions since the 1990s.

By the end of last year, China had about 1.85 million kilometres of highways and expressways opening to traffic, according to statistics from the Ministry of Communications.

Among them are 34,200 kilometres of expressways. China thus ranks second in the world in terms of expressway mileage after the United States.

An ambitious plan to build a 85,000-kilometre expressway network was just unveiled Thursday.

At the same time, the number of vehicles have also kept surging in the past few years.

By the end of 2003, China boasted more than 96 million vehicles, 21 per cent up over the previous year, statistics from Ministry of Public Security indicate.

China made great strides in road construction in last decade, especially in expressways.

"However, its traffic management systems and accident prevention mechanisms still lag far behind," He said.

In fact, China has 2 per cent of the world's total vehicles, but the deaths involved in the road accidents take up more than 15 per cent of the world's total.

And the experts say the situation may not be changed too much in the coming 10 years.

Causes

A survey from the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security shows speeding, poor driving skills and poor vehicle maintenance are three major causes of accidents.

"China's road traffic management has failed to keep abreast of the fast increase of road mileages and vehicles," He said.

"The current management system is inefficient largely because multiple parties are involved," he added. These include communications administrations and traffic management departments.

The latter is chiefly responsible for road safety management while the former handles road plans, construction and the levying of road tolls.

"The different regulations and overlapping administrative powers from the management authorities blur their responsibilities," He said.

Meanwhile, transportation businesses have borne excessive toll fees, taxes and penalties levied by these departments.

To be able to squeeze out more profits, these firms go as far as overloading their trucks, making their drivers work round the clock and spending as little as possible on maintenance.

Solutions

Focusing his study on road safety, He and his colleagues are working to find ways to reduce the numbers of accidents.

"The current management system must be reformed to improve traffic safety," he said.

Public security departments should strengthen their role in handling the individual cases of road accidents. The communications departments need to shoulder the overall road management responsibilities, He advised.

He highlighted the importance of preventive measures, saying China should introduce a road safety audit system.

"Auditing should be conducted by independent and qualified agencies to impose an overall examination over the road planning, design and constructions," He said.

The system has been implemented in many countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand and has been proved effective in reducing accidents.

According to a survey conducted by He's team in September 2003, a total of 50,000 kilometres of highways in 170,000 sections in the country need to be renovated to reduce hidden dangers.

"A lot of roads were found to have problems in design and constructions," He said.

Yu Lei, a professor with Beijing Jiaotong University, said the good maintenance of highways is "very important in preventing road accidents."

"The management in this regard is not adequate in the country," Yu said. "Overloading vehicles often damage the roads, creating hidden dangers which cause accidents."

The Ministry of Communications launched a project last year to renovate perilous roads and this will continue over the coming two years.

To prevent and reduce overloaded trucks tops the ministry's agenda.

"While increasing technological support for safety purposes, the country needs to formulate a road safety strategy to clarify the measures that the government will adopt to ensure safer traffic," Yu said.

The shortage of road signs and shelter facilities is also a cause of accidents, according to He.

"The increasing number of private cars and new drivers without proper driving instructions and knowledge of the highway code are major causes of accidents," He said.

China unveiled its first-ever law on road traffic safety last May, imposing stricter or even harsher penalties on drink drivers and those who did not hold a valid driver's licence or who drive a vehicle without licence plates.

"As well as tougher law enforcement, government departments also need to promote knowledge about safety to improve people's safety awareness," Yu said.

"Statistics show that 95 per cent of the expressway accidents are caused by human error," Yu said. "Those accidents caused by drink drivers or by speeding could have been avoided."

(China Daily January 14, 2005)