A small truck rammed through a crowd of about 20 people in the southwestern county of Sunchang on March 8, leaving four people dead and sixteen others injured. The 74-year-old driver was arrested at the scene. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of seniors involved in traffic accidents will spike in the near future with the aging population, a study showed Wednesday.
According to the report from the Samsung Traffic Safety Research Institute, there would be 11,459 traffic accidents occurring for every 100,000 seniors by 2026, an increase of 23.9 percent compared to 2021.
Sorted by the type of traffic accident, the number of traffic accidents that senior pedestrians will be involved in will jump from 1,236 cases in 2021 to 1,382 cases in 2026, up by 11.8 percent.
The increase rate of traffic accidents among senior pedestrians in metropolitan, autonomous provinces will be 22.1 percent, which will be 9.8 times higher than in capital and metropolitan cities (2.3 percent).
Traffic accidents caused by senior drivers will jump from 8,011 cases in 2021 to 10,077 cases in 2026, up by 25.8 percent.
The increase rate will be 26.8 percent for capital and metropolitan cities, and 24.7 percent for metropolitan, autonomous provinces.
“Local authorities should conduct studies on the patterns of senior traffic as well as their traffic needs to locate traffic zones with concentrated senior demand and conduct projects to improve the environment for pedestrians and drivers,” the institute said.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
