NTSC Fatality Reports

Hey All,

Welcome to the beginnings of AI's research blog.  All of these posts are meant to be internal, which is why our organization's name is not located anywhere within.  I'll email everyone the new posts, but because of the limitations of emails (inability to show charts and graphs in a visually pleasing way) the blog will have visual and explanations which are more accessible.  So...

Let's begin:

Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC

Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC
Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC

According to the NTSC, injuries and fatalities all dropped between 2007 and 2008.  Excellent news, however, there was also a decline in motorbike accidents.  Meaning the overall rate of serious injuries and serious fatalities per 100 accidents haven't fallen as much as we have hoped.

Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC

Serious injuries per 100 accidents have declined since last year, especially during the months of Jan and Feb and March (The months of tet, plus the beginning of the mandatory helmet law)
Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC

Interestingly, fatalities per 100 accidents have increased substantially since 2007.

Source: Chart by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Vietnam NTSC

The fact that injuries per 100 accidents have decreased, but fatalities per 100 accidents have increased is curious.  One possible explanation could be explained by the following.  

Before the mandatory helmet law was enacted, mild accidents would produce serious injuries because the most basic safety protocol was never employed.  Simply falling with your motorbike could produce a concussion, but would rarely cause a fatality.  After resolution 32 was enacted, mild accidents were no longer reported because mild accident injuries were protected by helmets and stopped occurring.  Therefore, the number of accidents and injuries dropped while fatalities stayed constant.

Aaron

Download NTSC Data