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ROAD ACCIDENTS PROFILE IN TAIWAN
Cheng-Min FENG
Professor, Institute of Traffic and Transportation, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan(Received February 15, 2007)

1.	INTRODUCTION
Taiwan had a population of 22.7 million in 2005
with a density of 630 persons per square kilometer. Per
capita income GNP in Taiwan has increased by about
2,000US dollars in the past 20 years, which brought about
a rise in motor vehicles. The total number of motor vehicles registered has increased from 7,950,000 in 1985 to19,863,000 in 2005, almost a tripling in 20 years. In thesame period, passenger cars rose from 3,874,000 to5,634,000, a 45% growth. At the same time the numberof motorcycles increased from 8,517,000 to 13,195,000,
a growth of 55%. Passenger car ownership in 2005 was
248 passenger cars per thousand people and motorcycle
ownership was 582 per thousand people. This implies that
there is one passenger car for every 4 people and one motorcycle for every 1.7 people. Substantial rates of growth
have caused more road traffic accidents.

2.	ACCIDENTS AND CAUSES
Table 1 presents historic data for fatalities, injuries,accident rates and major causes of accidents. The accident rate (accidents/10,000 vehicles) has increased almost 10 times in the past 20 years from 8 in 1985 to 78 in2005 as the number of vehicles grew 2.5 times. However,the number of people killed in vehicle traffic accidents
during the period of 1985-2005 declined by 20%, while
the injuries increased almost 29 times. The high injuries
come from the different definition and measurement ofinjures before and after the year 2000. The number ofinjuries before 2000 was obtained from injuries only infatal traffic accidents, while after 2000 that was definedas the injuries in all traffic accidents. Table 1 also shows
the major causes of accidents. Over the years, human error coming from the vehicle driver remains the leading
cause (96%-98%) of vehicle traffic accidents. This implies that considerable transport safety improvements
should be devoted to reduce human error through education and training in Taiwan.
One way to evaluate motor vehicle risk is to estimate its share of all accidents. Accidental fatalities include deaths from unintentional injuries that occur atwork, home, or other locations. In 2005, 2,894 lives werelost due to motor vehicle accidents, which is 56.6% of allaccidental deaths and 3.4% of all causes of deaths in Taiwan. Motor vehicle deaths are decreasing as a percentageof total deaths, but have remained at about half of all accidental deaths.
Table 2 shows accident rates, injury rates and fatality rates by selected vehicle type. Motorcycles received
the highest rank on vehicle traffic accidents in 2005 whilebuses, motorcycles and truck/trailers all have a relatively
high accident rate, injury rate and fatality rate.
Another way to evaluate motor vehicle risks is to
examine deaths by age group. Figure 1 shows that in theage group 15 to 24 years old, 43.3% of deaths could be
attributed to motor vehicle traffic accidents. This implies
the younger people have a high exposure of traffic risk.

Table 1 History of traffic accidents and causes
Items

Causes (%)

Yearvehicle
registration

accident/
10,000vehicles

injuries

fatalities

1985 7,949,993 8.0  6,955

3,564

96.30

1990

11,432,605

5.9  6,115

3,910

97.80

1995

13,201,471

2.7   2,933

3,065

97.50

1.02

1.39

0.09

2000*

17,022,689

31.1 66,895

3,388

98.45

0.35

0.91

0.29

2001

17,465,037

36.8 80,612

3,344

98.42

0.35

1.02

0.21

2002

17,906,957

48.2

109,594

2,861

97.84

0.35

1.50

0.31

2003

18,500,658

65.0

156,303

2,718

98.07

0.34

1.40

0.19

2004

19,183,136

71.5

179,108

2,634

97.93

0.33

1.48

0.26

2005

19,862,807

78.4

203,087

2,894

97.81

0.28

1.62

0.28

* Before and after 2000, the measurement of injuries is different.

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vehicledrivermechanicalfailurepassenger/pedestrian

other

1.70

1.80

0.20

1.18

0.82

0.20

Table 2 Accidents, fatalities and injuries by vehicle type in 2005
vehicleregistration

accidents

accident rate*

injury ratefatality ratepassenger car

5,634,362

86,940154.30

34.14

0.96

motorcycle

1.19

13,195,265

130,36698.80

119.86bus

26,967

1,919

711.61

264.40

4.82

truck/trailer

953,470

25,499267.43

54.41

1.71

* All rates are measured in unit of no./10,000 vehicles.

Motor vehicle traffic deaths/Accidental deaths

Motor vehicle traffic deaths/All causes of deaths

90%
82.51%

80%
70%
60%

57.69%

54.53%

56.66%

50%

44.79%

43.33%
39.77%

40%

30.63%

30%
24.22%

20%
13.01%

10.30%

10%

4.12%

2.77%

2.31%

0%
0-4

5-14

15-24

25-44

45-64

65-74

1.03%

75-84

0.38%

85+

Age Group

Fig. 1 Motor vehicle traffic deaths by age group in 2005

3. THE SAFETY MEASURES
Although Taiwan has adopted several regulations tomandate motorcyclists to wear helmets from 1997, to require car drivers and front seat passenger to fasten seatbelts from 2001, to raise the penalties for drunk driving
and other traffic offences from 2001 etc., the motor vehicle accident rate still remains high. Since vehicle drivers, vehicle equipment, road conditions and government
regulators are all responsible for road safety, recent
planned road safety programs in Taiwan comprise the improvement of driver training and education, particularlyfor young drivers, the requirement of vehicle safetyequipment, particularly for buses and heavy goods vehicles, the mandatory requirement for the use of daytime
running lights, particularly in mountain and tunnel areas,

the improvement of road traffic engineering, particularlyon the dangerous intersections and links, and the increaseof enforcement, particularly for drunk driving, excessive
speed, road shoulder driving, and signal violation behaviors.
Recent debating issues discussed in Taiwan include
the mandatory use of rear belts, the right turn on red, aspeed limit of 40 km/h for the urban buses, the age of 16
years for access to driving for a motorcycle and a car, andthe introduction of road safety audit system. The encouraging thing is that not only the central government pays
attention to road safety policy and programs, but also
many local governments have established a road safetycommittee to review the safety performances and provide
safety improvement measures.

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