Singapore roads safest in half-a-decade

Fatal and injury accident rate in 2011 dropped to 83.31 per 10,000 vehicle population.

The drop came from an 8.1% decrease in total fatal and injury accidents to 7,925 from 8,625 cases registered, said the Singapore Police Force in a release.

The pedestrian population also experienced less lethal accidents, especially among the elderly jaywalkers, but motorcyclists continue to be a vulnerable segment for road fatalities.

"In 2011, the total number of fatal and injury accidents registered a decrease of 8.1%, from 8,625 cases in 2010 to 7,925 cases last year. The fatal and injury accident rate (normalised against 10,000 vehicle population) registered a significant drop from 91.96 in 2010 to 83.31 in 2011; the lowest fatal and injury accident rate in the past 5 years," SPF said.

"On fatality rate, 2011 registered an increase of 4 fatalities on our roads as compared to 2010. However, the fatality rate per 100,000 human population (which takes into account the rate of change in population) in 2011 remained constant at 3.80 as per the year before," it added.

"There is a significant drop of 50% (from 24 persons in 2010 to 12 persons in 2011) in the number of elderly [3] pedestrian jaywalker fatalities in 2011. In addition, an improvement is also seen in both the overall number of pedestrian fatalities as well as the number of elderly pedestrian fatalities in 2011. The total number of pedestrian fatalities has dropped by 10.9%, from 55 in 2010 to 49 in 2011, with the number of elderly fatalities showing a decrease of 10.3% from 29 in 2010 to 26 in 2011," it said further.

"Motorcyclists and their pillion riders continued to be a cause for concern, accounting for about half the total number of fatalities in 2011. Of the 197 fatalities in 2011, there were 99 fatalities involving motorcyclists and their pillion riders, an increase of 11.2% from the 89 fatalities recorded in 2010," SPF said.