Nearly 68 000 people died on China’s roads in the first eight months of the year and more than 300 000 were injured, state press said on Tuesday.
The loss of property in the accidents was valued at about 1,68-billion yuan ($200-million), Xinhua news agency reported, citing police statistics.
Although the number of accidents — 340 000 — were down by 24% from the same period last year, the number of fatalities was 2,7% or 1 805 deaths higher, the report said.
The Asian Development Bank warned in July that if no action was taken to change the trend Chinese road accidents could kill more than 200 000 people a year by 2010, while the number of injured could double to one million annually.
Last year, 104 000 people died in traffic accidents in China, or 285 every day, according to government statistics.
China accounts for about 15% of traffic deaths worldwide although it has just more than two percent of the world’s vehicles. – Sapa-AFP