Accidents

National Police Agency classifieds traffic accidents into three categories: A1, A2 and A3. The latest definitions describe them as accidents which lead to death of at least one person within 24 hours of the accident, at least one non-lethal injury, and property damage only, respectively.

A1 accidents have been recorded since 1985 but data on A2 accidents were not recorded until 1998. A3 accidents had not yet been incorporated into Road Accident Investigation and Reporting System (Yeh, 2012).

10 In this work, “motorcycle” refers to any motor-powered two-wheeled vehicle and does not distinguish between engine displacements and vehicle design (i.e., included are also scooters and mopeds).

Figure 3 A1 and A2 accidents between 1966 and 2012

Source: National Police Agency, MOI (2013a), Institute of Transportation, MOTC (2013b)

There were approximately 6,000 A1 accidents recorded in mid-1960s but with the development of transportation industry this number quickly rose to its peak in the mid-1970s when more than 10,500 accidents occurred. Taiwanese lawmakers made first attempts to resolve the ascending trend by implementing alcohol law in 1975 (Laws and Regulations Database of the Republic of China, MOJ, 2013) and constructing first motorcycle exclusive lanes in order to separate two-wheeled and four-two-wheeled traffic. These countermeasures were successful and fatal accidents decreased to 2,700 in 1993. Since then, they have been oscillating between 2,000 and 3,500 cases annually with a slow decreasing trend. There were less than 2,000 fatal accidents in Taiwan¹¹ recorded in 2012.

On the contrary, A2 accidents saw a steep rise between 2000 and 2012; they increased five-fold from 50,000 to almost 250,000 in the observed period. The fast growth is yet to be explained but one possible reason is increase in accuracy of recorded data. Perhaps the rate of under-reporting is diminishing (possibly due to anticipation of insurance reimbursement), thus, National Police Agency data is simply aligning with the actual situation and a real change of A2 accidents cannot be derived from the official data. Under-reporting of non-fatal injuries, especially those that are less severe, is common (Odero, Garner, & Zwi, 1997). The exact rate of under-reporting remains unknown; Hsu et al. (2003a) estimated that the actual number of all

11 For more details see Appendix 3 Fatalities, accidents and injuries.

0

1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 A2 accidents (in thousands)

A1 accidents (in thousands)

A1 accidents A2 accidents

accidents was at least 50 times more than the sum of A1 accidents but in 2012 there were approximately 125 times more total accidents than A1 accidents officially reported so the rate of under-reporting is probably much higher.

By using the official statistics (i.e., excluding accidents which are not reported or which only lead to property damage) can be concluded that in 2012 there were approximately 10.7 accidents per 1,000 persons¹² or one accident every 2 minutes and 6 seconds¹³ which led to injury of at least one person on average.

In order to better understand the changes in traffic safety measures and their implications, it is helpful to examine the leading causes of accidents. In 2012 97.9% of A1 and A2 accidents combined were caused by driver while only 1.3% by passenger or pedestrian, 0.3% by vehicle malfunction, 0.1% by traffic control malfunction, and 0.3% by other factors (National Police Agency, MOI, 2013b). Thus, human failure appears to be the main leading cause of all accidents.

This figure can be further developed into six prevailing accident causes including drunk driving, careless driving, failing to yield, disregarding signals, inappropriate turning, and losing control over vehicle due to speeding.

Figure 4 Six main A1 accident causes

Source: Traffic Safety Committee, MOTC (2010) and Traffic Safety Committee, MOTC (2013)

12 ( 1,964 [A1 accidents] + 247,501 [A2 accidents] ) / 23,315,822 [population] = 10.679

13 1 / ( 1,964 [A1 accidents] + 247,501 [A2 accidents] / 365 [days] / 24 [hours] / 60 [minutes] ) = 2.107

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Cases

Drunk driving Failing to yield

Disregarding traffic signals Losing control due to speeding Inappropriate turning Careless driving

The number of accidents caused by the six main causes combined comprised about 60-70% of the total sum of all accidents. The most common cause was drunk driving which peaked in 2006 when it was accountable for approximately 700 deaths. The growth of number of accidents caused by drunk driving in 2005-2007 collides with the increase of fatalities in the same time period which confirms that driving under the influence is responsible for vast majority of traffic fatalities. In December 2005 (prior to peak of drunk driving accidents in 2006) the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act was revised. The revision lifted life-time license revocation because it had been declared against the Constitutional Law; the increase in alcohol related accidents might, thus, be result of the change in the Act. Careless driving is the second most frequent cause of fatal accidents but it appears to have a declining trend. Failing to yield and disregarding traffic signals somewhat increased while inappropriate turning slightly decreased.

The largest change was observed in losing control due to speeding which dropped from more than 520 deaths in 2000 to less than 70 deaths in 2012¹⁴. Police recordings, however, require only one main cause one main cause to be explicitly written down and it is believed that speeding is usually underestimated and remains a serious problem in Taiwan (Yeh, 2012).

Figure 5 Accident composition by mode of transport between 2000 and 2012

Source: National Police Agency, MOI (2013b)

Closer examination of accidents by mode of transport reveals that motorcycles caused over 50%

14 For more details see Appendix 4 Six main A1 accident causes.

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Accidents (in thousands)

Motorcycle Automobile Truck Bicycle Bus Special veh. Other

of accidents in 2012 and the proportion has been steadily increasing over the last decade¹⁵; motorcycles were only involved in 35% of accidents in 2000. Motorcycle collision types were thoroughly analyzed by Hsu et al. (2003a).

Table 2 Motorcycle accidents by collision type

Accident type Percentage

Right-angle collision 19.20%

Head-on collision 7.59%

Rear-end collision 8.04%

Sideswipe collision 38.84%

Pedestrian hit by motorcycle 6.70%

Hole in roadway or rider falls down 3.12%

Collision with fixed object 5.80%

Other 10.71%

Source: Hsu et al. (2003a)

Table 2 reveals that the sideswipe collision is among the most frequent kinds of collisions suggesting that the frequency of motorcycle accidents on the road section in mid-stream is higher than at intersections.