Traffic accidents killed some 68,000 people and injured 302,000 across China in the first eight months of this year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

A total of 340,000 traffic accidents occurred from January to August, a year-on-year rise of 24.0 percent, with the number of fatalities increasing 2.7 percent in the same period.

Economic losses from traffic accidents dropped 34 percent in the period, to 1.7 billion yuan (US$203.0 million).

Traffic safety in August -- three months after the new Road Traffic Safety Law went into effect -- was particularly dismal.

Around 43,000 accidents occurred in August, causing 9,601 deaths, 45,860 injuries and economic losses of 18.0 million yuan (US$2.2 million).

A traffic official from the ministry said that speeding, drunk driving, illegal passing and reckless driving were the major causes of accidents.

In August alone, speeding caused 48 major accidents, in each of which three or more people were killed, leaving 176 dead and 172 injured. The total number killed by excessively fast driving was 1,726.

Motor vehicles, especially trucks, are at fault in 94 percent of traffic accidents. In August, trucks caused 87 major accidents in which 340 people were killed.

In one case on June 16, 21 of 26 passengers on a bus were killed in an accident in Xinyu, a city in southeast China's Jiangxi Province. The bus was only designed to accommodate 19 people. Driver Li Xinming lost control of the vehicle and it went off the road into a lake. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

(China Daily September 15, 2004)