Lesser accidents reported last year but number of traffic offenders increases

There have been fewer road traffic accidents, including fatal ones, last year, according to statistics from the Traffic Police. In 2012, there were a total of 7,168 accidents - a reduction of 9.6 percent in comparison to 2011. The number for fatalities declined from 195 to 169 between the two years.

In contrast, however, the number of traffic violations rose by 4 percent to 327,503 cases in 2012 - up from 316,214 - which translate to 900 offenders daily. 

To curb the number of offenders, the Traffic Police will utilise technology on top of deploying Auxiliary Police Officers to strengthen its enforcement efforts against offenders. On top of increased vigilance, the Traffic Police is on track to digitise all of its red light cameras by 2014 in a bid to issue summons at a faster pace. 

This echoes comments made by Minister S. Iswaran yesterday as he called for stringent laws and an emphasis for wider road safety awareness amidst two high-profile accidents at Tampines and KJE respectively.