Breakfast Seminar on Road Safety - 4th July, 2007 Go back »
2007-06-26 | Beijing
Breakfast Seminar on Road Safety - 4th July, 2007Road safety has become an increasingly important topic in China over the past few years. European automobile manufacturers and the Chinese government have been approaching the issue as a matter of public health in order to decrease the number of fatalities and injuries in road accidents.
On the 4th of July, the European Chamber held a Breakfast Seminar to address this issue. Mr. Alexis Vannier of PSA Peugeot Citroën and Prof. Sheng Yong Wang, Director of the Center of Injury Prevention and Control, Jinan University discussed the current situation and shared their point of view with the audience. Mr. Vannier opened the seminar with his presentation of how traffic injuries affect China: A total loss of 300 lives per day and an estimated US$ 12.5 billion economic loss per year. To combat these losses, he proposed to work on three main factors: Car safety, driving behaviour, and infrastructure. However, according to Mr. Vannier, particular attention must be paid to driver’s training. For more information click here.
Prof. Wang then presented the audience with the development of road injury statistics over the past 56 years. Prof. Wang stated that increases are mainly due to the growing number of vehicles in China, while the necessary infrastructure has lagged behind. However, since 2002 the rate of accidents has curbed and Prof. Wang believes that this development is linked to the economical growth of China. With more funds, so his theory, the government is in a better position to approach the issue and decrease road accidents. Finally, he appealed to European businesses to help support China’s efforts to minimize road injuries. For more information click here.