ROAD SAFETY/Transportation ministry to build, improve 80 km of sidewalks

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said Wednesday that road safety policies in 2025 will focus on pedestrians, with 80 kilometers of sidewalks built and improved.

The increased and improved sidewalks will include marked sidewalks, where the side of an existing road is painted a different color, usually green, and designated a "sidewalk," Chen said at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' (MOTC) press conference.

At the press event, the ministry detailed its latest guidelines for road planning, which Chen said seek to reduce connection problems between roads and sidewalks by ensuring design standards converge, ultimately leading to the building of a safer traffic environment.

The MOTC also released statistics on traffic accidents in 2024.

The year saw a total of 393,918 accidents, with 2,950 deaths within 30 days of the incident, and 524,485 injuries. Both figures were an improvement on 3,023 deaths and 539,535 injuries in 2023, the data showed.

The number of deaths within 30 days was also the lowest in three years, the MOTC said.

Deaths from DUIs dropped from 253 in 2023 to 160, a 36.8 percent decrease, while pedestrian deaths fell from 380 to 366, the lowest since 2008, according to the data.

Deaths of seniors dropped from 1,277 to 1,250, and deaths from motorcycle accidents from 1,866 to 1,858, the data indicated.

However, 78 children and teenagers died in traffic accidents in 2024, an increase on 76 deaths in 2023. Of these, 18 children died, 2 fewer than 2023; but there were 60 teenage deaths, 4 more than the 56 recorded in 2023.

The MOTC said that 40 of the teenage deaths involved driving a motorcycle, many of whom did not have a license, and 13 were motorcycle passengers

Chen said that the ministry will ask the Ministry of Education to help with guidance on curbing unlicensed motorcycle driving.

The ministry also found that many students go to work or school on motorcycles due to a lack of public transport. The ministry will evaluate areas with high numbers of teenage accidents on motorcycles and assess whether to increase public transportation or the availability of public bicycles, Chen said.