By SHIMPACHI YOSHIDA/ Senior Staff Writer
January 26, 2023 at 07:00 JST
Fukushima prefectural police inspect the scene of a car accident on Jan. 7 in Koriyama that killed four people. (Toru Saito)
Traffic fatalities nationwide declined to 2,610 in 2022, the sixth straight year of record-low death tolls, National Police Agency statistics showed.
The figure was down by 26, or 1.0 percent, from the previous year.
The government, which started compiling such traffic statistics in 1948, has set a goal of reducing traffic-related deaths to less than 2,000 by 2025.
The NPA said the downward trend in deaths reflects a public-private campaign for safer driving.
But the latest decrease was smaller than those in 2020 and 2021, when people refrained from venturing outdoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The NPA said it will analyze the impact of the pandemic on the number of traffic accidents.
According to the NPA’s figures released on Jan. 4, Osaka for the first time led all prefectures with 141 traffic-related fatalities, up by one from 2021.
Aichi Prefecture was second with 137 deaths, up by 20, followed by Tokyo’s 132, down by one, Chiba’s 124, up by three, and Hyogo’s 120, up by six.
Tottori Prefecture had the fewest fatalities, at 14, down by five.
Okayama Prefecture reported the most traffic deaths per 100,000 people, at 3.94. The smallest figure of 0.94 was logged in Tokyo.
Preliminary figures showed that individuals 65 or over accounted for 1,471, or 56.4 percent, of the deaths, down by 49, or 3.2 percent, from the previous year.
Traffic deaths peaked at 16,765 in 1970. The figure then decreased but started rising again.
Since 1996, when fewer than 10,000 fatalities were reported, the death toll has been declining.
Explaining the long-term trend, the NPA points to improved public awareness of traffic safety, automatic braking systems that mitigate collision damage, and other upgrades to safety functions and operations of automobiles.
According to the preliminary figures, 301,193 traffic accidents occurred last year, a 1.3-percent decline from 2021. The number of injured victims dropped by 1.6 percent to 356,419.
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