FATAL MOTOR ACCIDENTS (Particulars)

Mr Eric Cheong Yuen Chee asked the Minister for Home Affairs, if he will give breakdown figures of the number of motor cars which were involved in fatal accidents for the years 1978, 1979 and 1980 and the number of the cars which were of British, European and Japanese manufacture.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the number of motor cars involved in fatal accidents and their countries of manufacture for the past three years (1978-1980) are as follows:- 1978 1979 1980 a. No. of motor cars involved in fatal accidents 101 69 76 b. Country of Manufacture (i) Japan 54 45 57 (ii) Europe 13 16 12 (iii) Britain 30 7 4 (iv) Cars not identified 4 1 3 (e.g. hit-and-run cases, Malaysian cars) 101 69 76

The figures on motor cars involved in fatal accidents, by country of manufacture, are not meaningful unless they are related to corresponding figures on motor cars registered in Singapore. On 31st December, 1980, motor cars registered in Singapore, by country of manufacture, are as follows:- Japan . . 106,170 Europe . . 26,828 Britain . . 16,349 Others . . 3,227 152,574 If we divide the number of cars involved in fatal accidents by the stock of cars in respect of each country of manufacture and multiply the results by 10,000 we then have an index of fatal accidents involvement per 10,000 cars by country of manufacture. For 1980, the indices are as follows:- Country of Manufacture Index (per 10,000) Japan 5.37 Europe 4.47 Britain 2.45 Others 9.30

Mr Ho See Beng (Khe Bong): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, does the Minister attribute these fatal accidents to mechanical fault or to the fault of the driver?

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Sir, the causes of the accidents are quite complex and they can be attributed to many causes. But from the cases of accidents which the Traffic Police have studied, the major fault is attributed to the human factor rather than mechanical.