HANOI, April 9 (Xinhua): Road traffic crashes claimed more than 1,400 lives in Vietnam in January-March this year, down 15.2 per cent from a year ago, the Vietnam News newspaper has reported.
The number of non-fatal injuries, with many incurring disability, from road accidents during the cited period fell 8.6 percent to nearly 1,580, the report said, citing the National Traffic Safety Committee.
The total number of accidents nationwide declined 15.4 percent to more than 2,300, of which almost 99 percent were recorded as road traffic crashes, the committee said.
Authorities were able to identify the causes of around 65 percent of all road traffic accidents in the March quarter, Khuat Viet Hung, executive vice chairman of the traffic safety committee, told a conference.
Official data showed 14.7 percent of the accidents were due to non-adherence to lane driving and careless overtaking, 7.7 percent caused by unsafe direction changing, 2.2 percent by driving under the influence of alcohol or substances, 2.1 percent by jaywalking and 1.7 percent were due to overspeeding.
Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3 percent of their gross domestic product, according to statistics released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022.
More than 90 percent of road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, while more than half of all traffic deaths are among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, said the WHO. - Xinhua
