Traffic death toll in Tokyo 161 in 2015; lowest figure since World War II

Elderly people are less robust, thus more likely to die in an accident where younger people are more likely to survive and recover.

Apparently from your avatar gogogo, you're about 14 years old, so maybe you should ask your parents to take you to Japan so you can see everyone wearing seatbelts and the police checking for them.

Of the fatalities, 40% were aged 65 or older.

Can we finally put that little nugget about older drivers being safer than younger drivers to bed now?

What does your comment have to do with the quote?

My point is that no one seems to wear seatbelts in Japan

What a ridiculous comment.

@It"S ME: My point is that no one seems to wear seatbelts in Japan, they are not cool and police don't enforce it.

Gogogo.

Does it matter? 161 people are dead. No Compassion regardless if they wore a belt(which gives no 100% protection). Most die from side partial sideimpacts where the belts efficiency is reduced.

Would love to know how many were lack of wearing a seatbelt

" “Challenge Under 150,”

Stupid name, and I doubt very much, given the nature of campaigns by police, that the campaign itself had little or nothing to do with it, but if fatalities were lower than normal, then good news.

Yubaru: "Not when they include the numbers for pedestrians in the equation as well. Senior citizens account for a huge percentage of pedestrian deaths throughout Japan, and including them in vehicle numbers can be a bit misleading for statistic purposes."

I think you're kind of proving the poster's point.

Also considering the fact that Japan had only 2.3M registered vehicles on the road back in 1960 vs over 81M vehicles in 2015. (JETRO)

Amazing! Good to hear! Good to know! OTSU KARE SAMA DESHITA to the one's concerned! Good job well done!

Can we finally put that little nugget about older drivers being safer than younger drivers to bed now?

Not when they include the numbers for pedestrians in the equation as well. Senior citizens account for a huge percentage of pedestrian deaths throughout Japan, and including them in vehicle numbers can be a bit misleading for statistic purposes.

Of the fatalities, 40% were aged 65 or older.

Can we finally put that little nugget about older drivers being safer than younger drivers to bed now?

This result is because of how they build cars today, improved emergency services combined with the fact that a traffic death in Japan is counted when someone dies within 24 hrs of the accident. But to have a more complete picture of road safety, we should also look at the number of traffic accidents and the number of different types of injuries.

A closer look at other statistics reveals something else. Though traffic deaths have declined, traffic accidents haven’t: from 661,000 in 1989 to 691,000 in 2011. More significantly, the number of traffic-related injuries has gone up, too: 815,000 in 1989 to 854,000 in 2011.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/05/13/national/media-national/road-death-stats-hide-the-truth/

@Burning Bush

Automated cars aren't just about safety, you could read a book or do other things while your car drives. And we could improve traffic flow in general, time to destination etc.

What amazes me about this result is the leniency on seatbelt usage in Japan and yet a low death toll, probably some missing data here.

Hopefully we can see their definition of a traffic fatality too.