Road accidents and fatalities have dropped this year, according to statistics from the National Committee of Traffic Safety.

The scene of a railway acccident

A total of 22,404 traffic accidents have been reported so far this year, in which 8,671 people were killed and 20,556 were injured.

Compared to last year, the number of cases fell 11.52 percent and the number of deaths and injuries dropped 3.61 and 15.81 percent, respectively.

However, statistics showed that there were more crashes on railway and waterways.

The number of railway accidents was up by 58.18 percent to 261 cases, leading to 214 deaths and 43 injuries.

Traffic police issued fines in more than 4.2 million cases, totaling nearly 2.73 trillion VND (118 million USD) in value. Police also seized 37,000 cars and nearly 516,000 motorbikes, and took back 350,000 driving licences.

December alone saw 1,776 accidents on the road, killing 700 victims and injuring 1,673 others, the committee reported, adding that the figures showed a drop of 24 deaths.

VNA