2      Overall, there was a 6.2% increase in the total number of fatal and injury accidents, from 6,444 in 2003 to 6,842 in 2004. This was largely attributed to the number of slight injury accidents which went up from 6,125 cases in 2003 to 6,587 in 2004. The number of serious injury accidents dropped by 38.5%, from 117 cases in 2003 to 72 cases.

3      The number of fatal accidents decreased by 9.4%, from 202 cases in 2003 to 183 cases. The number of fatalities dropped from 212 persons in 2003 to 194 persons in 2004.

Fatalities

4      Last year, single-party fatal accident cases where the motorist failed to have proper control of his vehicle went down from 42 cases to 32 cases for motorcyclists.

5      Fewer younger riders were killed in accidents last year. In 2004, 38 motorcyclists aged below 30 were killed. This is lower compared with 44 motorcyclists in the same age group killed in 2003, a drop of 6 fatalities, or 13.6%.

6      The number of pedestrians killed in 2004 dropped by 29.5%, from 64 pedestrian fatalities in 2004 to 45 in 2004.

Traffic Education and Enforcement

7      Traffic Police have continued to leverage on two key strategies on keep our roads safer. They are the educational arms and the enforcement efforts.

8      Education efforts include public education programmes such as the Road Safety Outreach, Road Courtesy Campaigns, Shell Traffic Games and the Anti-Drink Drive Campaign. These campaigns are actively publicised through various media channels like television, radio, press and outdoor advertisements. The Traffic Police also conduct road safety talks and exhibitions to schools, companies and government organisations.

9      As for enforcement, there was a 22.9% increase from 306,392 to 376,600 summonses issued in 2004 as compared to the previous year. Summonses issued for moving offences such as speeding or careless driving, rose by 29.0% from 130,385 to 168,245, while those issued for pedestrian offences rose by 128.1% from 1,763 in 2003 to 4,021 in 2004.