Chilean road safety concern

Concern is being expressed in Chile with regard to its worsening rate of road traffic deaths. The fatality rate hit 16,157 for the 2005-2014 period. Of these 6,198 (38%) were run over, including 597 during 2014. The majority of cases where people were killed in road traffic crashes during 2014 took place in central southern cities, such as Concepcion (298 deaths), followed by Temuco (292) and Puerto Montt (259) as well as communes such as Puente Alto (237), San Bernardo (281) and Valparaiso (216). Males accounted for the majority of road traffic deaths in the last decade, at 67%. During 2014, 54% of the 597 fatalities were of males. New measures will be introduced under new road traffic laws to lower crash rates, including traffic calming in residential and busy pedestrian areas as well as schools. Experts consider that some of the main factors linked to people being run over include low light levels, involving either a lack of street lights or a lack of natural sunlight, as well as fog and rain.