Road accidents killed 96,870 people in the first 11 months of this year in China, up 1.5 percent over the same period last year, according to figures released by Ministry of Public Security on Saturday.

At the same period, 435,740 were also injured in the 470,019 traffic accidents besides the death.

Severe accidents saw sharp increase in the January-November period, although the total number of accidents dropped 23.9 percent and the number of injured people downed 4.7 percent, statistics show.

The most severe 54 accidents, with more than 10 deaths in each case, killed 838 people and injured 878 from January to November, the figures show.

A large part of the severe accidents took place during the January-February period and October-November period.

The ministry attributed overspeed, tired driving and imperfect vehicle condition as three major causes to the accidents. Sixteen of the 54 severe accidents were caused by overspeed.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2004)