I refer to William Telfer's letter headlined 'Vulnerable pedestrians' (February 14), about pedestrian fatalities.
First, I would remind readers that even a single death by a motor vehicle is one too many. However, in a city of almost 7 million, Hong Kong's traffic safety record when compared with the rest of the world is one we can be proud of.
I was unaware of Hong Kong's pedestrian deaths and injuries by motor vehicles until I read the letter.
Here is a point of comparison with the US. The 44 deaths out of a city of 6.8 million, in terms of a commonly expressed statistic, are 0.65 deaths per 100,000. Nationally, the 1998 US record book says the equivalent American statistic is 1.86.
Narrowing down to cities with over half a million population, I will cite the traffic fatalities to pedestrians in two cities, Detroit and New York. Detroit has 5.05 deaths per 100,000 while New York is about half of that.
Here is where analysing numbers gets tricky. In 1998, the US had 69,000 pedestrian injuries. This translates into 24.64 per 100,000. Hong Kong's figure on pedestrian injuries is a high 40.17. Why? So as not to equate apples to oranges and restricting ourselves to a comparison with large US cities, I must say Hong Kong has a considerable edge over large American cities in having fewer pedestrian injuries.
