No. of traffic fatalities in Seoul drops 19% on-year in 2019

Yonhap

The number of traffic deaths in Seoul fell 19.1 percent last year from a year earlier, data showed Saturday.

A total of 246 people died in traffic accidents in Seoul in 2019, down from 304 tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

The annual number of traffic deaths has been declining since it peaked at 1,371 in 1989 and has hit record lows every year since 2015.

The data also showed that 0.78 people died for every 10,000 vehicles on the road of the South Korean capital last year, down from the previous year's 0.96. At the same time, about 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 people were caused by car crashes.

The number of pedestrians killed in traffic accidents fell 22 percent year-on-year to 144 from 184 over the one-year period.

The deaths of those aged 65 or over reached 103 last year, accounting for 42 percent of all traffic fatalities in the city.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it was aiming to reduce the road traffic fatality ratio per 100,000 people to 2.1 in 2020 and 1.8 in 2021 from the current 2.4. (Yonhap)