I hope this post is within bounds. Apparently "tens of thousands of wealthy Chinese are flocking to Germany to hire cars to whizz up and down the autobahns at 150mph". A representative of one of the car hire firms, when asked if he thought it was dangerous said; and I paraphrase; some of them stop on rounabouts and ignore red lights and on the autobahns a few stop on the hard shoulder to make tea and let the kids run around, but nothing serious.
I think that last remark may have been a bit of Teutonic sense of humour. I rang one of my mates in Bremen, a German and he fell about laughing. He has seen nothing to worry him on his travels.
The same article said that the Chinese road toll is 600 KILLED daily; blimey I know there are a lot of them but keep that carnage up and pretty soon your'e talking big numbers.
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The same article said that the Chinese road toll is 600 KILLED daily; blimey I know there are a lot of them but keep that carnage up and pretty soon your'e talking big numbers.
600 per day times 365 days = 219,000 per annum. In a population of 1.29 billion, that is 0.1698 per thousand per annum.
Transferred to a population of 60 million, that would be about 10,000 deaths per annum. We get about 5500, IIRC.
So for all our better car safety systems, MOT tests, driver training, traffic enforcement, two million speeding tickets per annum, and so on, we manage to avoid just 45% of accidents.
Not very impressive, to my mind.
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We get about 5500, IIRC.
IIRC 3500 approx.
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IIRC 3500 approx.
That would be better, obviously, but given the effort that is put into road safety here by comparison with China, I would have hoped for a difference of at least an order of magnitude if not more.
I do recall 5500 from somewhere. But I do make mistakes from time to time...
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Much as I agree with your argument, (and I do - I really do!) I think it is 3508 - or at least it was in 2003.
Of course, you are right though. I would expect considerably less given the amount we plough into safety measures...whoops - sorry - I forgot to lace that with sarcasm. "Safety" measures.
>>But I do make mistakes from time to time...<<
No. I simply refuse to believe it. Take it back. TAKE IT BACK!!!
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Adam
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I've had a look at Paul Smith's site - cheddar seems to be right.
I must have been thinking of MRSA deaths - after the fuss over HMG managing to make our hospitals more dangerous than our roads.
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Transferred to a population of 60 million, that would be about 10,000 deaths per annum. We get about 5500, IIRC.
The number of vehicles might be a more relevant conmparison. I don't know the figures, but I'm sure that Chinese vehicle ownership per capita is at much lower levels than the UK's.
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The number of vehicles might be a more relevant conmparison. I don't know the figures, but I'm sure that Chinese vehicle ownership per capita is at much lower levels than the UK's.
Good point.
::[gladly recovers some semblance of validity for his argument]::
::[recoils in surprise on realising that NW salvaged it for him!]::
;-)
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::[gladly recovers some semblance of validity for his argument]:: ::[recoils in surprise on realising that NW salvaged it for him!]::
Umm, sorry to disappoint, but I don't think I did salvage it!
According to www.tdctrade.com/report/mkt/mkt_031103.htm there were about 25 million cars on Chinese roads in 2005. DfT figures for the UK (see tinyurl.com/bbxdt ) say that there were about 31 million vehicles in the UK in 2003 (of which about 25 million are private cars).
But whereas the UK had about 3,500 road deaths, China has about 200,000 by your guesstimate, or 83,000 according to another source I found ( tinyurl.com/cb9n9 ).
I think that means Chinese roads have at least 25 times more fatalities per vehicle, or about 50% more per head of population
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I knew, I just knew she was going to come back with the exact figures!
--
Adam
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I knew, I just knew she was going to come back with the exact figures!
I couldn't resist finding out just how far we have to go to catch up with the Chinese ;-)
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Just happened acros another figure -- it looks like patently's guesstimate of Chinese road fatalities was about right: The Times cites the WHO as the source for a figure of 242,000. Which would make Chinese deaths per car a mind-boggling 75 times higher than here.
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How many of the road deaths in China are cyclists?
And how many of these are in accidents where no powered road vehicle was involved?
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How many of the road deaths in China are cyclists?
Actually, I'm beginning to think that none of China's roads have in fact died, for many years at least.
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Having visited China and been driven around the more affluent (i.e. car owning) areas I can tell you there is absolutely no comparison between UK and China in terms of road safety. Chinese drivers are lethal - I would imagine the chances of being in a wreck over there are 100-fold that of the UK.
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"The Times cites the WHO as the source for a figure of 242,000. Which would make Chinese deaths per car a mind-boggling 75 times higher than here."
Obviously they don't have many safety cameras. Marketing opportunity?
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Obviously they don't have many safety cameras. Marketing opportunity?
Surely the UK doesn't actually make any which it could sell?
As BMW's Bernd Pischetsrieder said, "You English are engaged in an interesting experiment which we Germans are watching carefully, but you have to excuse us if we keep our manufacturing industry for now."
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As BMW's Bernd Pischetsrieder said, "You English are engaged in an interesting experiment which we Germans are watching carefully, but you have to excuse us if we keep our manufacturing industry for now."
Very good! I think Mrs Thatcher called it a 'post-industrial society', didn't she?
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